iiir 



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Class 12,16, 



Rnnk .Ci>b J 



L'^i 



THE 



SOUTHERN STATES 



SINGE THE WAK. 



1870-1. 



BY 

HOBEUT SOMERS. 




WITE MAP. 

E. 



Sonbon anb |Tcto gorh; 
MACMILLAN AND CO. 

1871. 



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i-o.vno.v 

««EAD STREET HILL. 



PREFACE. 



There is little to say by way of preface to this book. To 
explain how it came to be written would lead only to personal 
details of no interest to the reader. Its defects cannot be 
extenuated nor its merits enhanced by any statement in this 
form; and a Preface might as well be wholly dispensed with 
but for a tribute of thanks which it is alike incumbent and 
pleasing to pay. 

To John Pender, of Manchester, who warmly encouraged my 
design from first to last, and gave me letters of introduction 
that proved most valuable — to Robert Dalglish, M.P. for 
Glasgow, who readily obtained from the Foreign Office a letter 
commending Her Majesty's Consuls to render me such assistance 
as they could properly afford — and to all in the United States* 
too numerous to name, from whom through these and other 
relationships much information was received — I owe the most 
cordial acknowledgments. Nor can I omit to express my '~^ 
admiration of the general civility of the American people, 'y}! 
from whom, during a soioum of months among them with ^nta- 
all the curiosity of an inquirer, not a word escaped in my 
hearin!? v — ''■ ' +o a stranger or a British subject to b 



vi PREFACE. 

This Inquiry has been accomplished without connection with 
any Association, mercantile or political. The Author alone is 
responsible for the manner in which it has been performed, and 
the conclusions to which it comes. 

Among the many writers who visit the United States with 
somewhat similar purposes of observation, one so seldom 
directs his steps to the South that I am fain to hope there 
may be found in this circumstance alone an ample warrant 
of publication. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
Introduction : General Subjects of Inquiry Fage. 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Mount Vernon. — Washington's life as a Planter. — The Woods of Virginia. — 
Aspect of the Country from Acquia Creek to Richmond. — Agricultural 
Divisions of Virginia — Their general Characteristics .... Page 7 

CHAPTER III. 

City of Richmond — Some features of its Trade and Industry.- — Tone of 
Politics. — The General Assembly. — Testimony borne of the Freedraen by 
Employers. — Rate of Wages.— Dearness of Articles of Consumption, and 
its Causes. — Population of the State and City. — Schools for the Negro 
Children Fage, 14 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Land Question in Virginia. — Estates and Farms for Sale without Pur- 
chasers. — Eflects of War and Revolution. — The Annual State Fair. — 
Abundant natural Fertilisers. — New Industries. ■ — Regularity of the 
Markets for Tobacco and other Agricultural Produce.- — Railways. — Desir- 
ableness of Virginia to Middle-class Settlers Fage, 21 

CHAPTER V. 

The Pine Forests of North Carolina. — Extended Cultivation of Cotton.— Jay- 
ment of Negroes by Shares in the Crop. — Small comparative Cost of Rail- 
ways. — The Port of Wilmington. — Exports of North Carolina since the 
War. — Partial compensation of lower Prices by higher Exchange Value of 
the Dollar. — Wilmington, Charlotte, and Rutherford Railway. — Governor 
Holden versus the White People.— Great increase of Negroes in Wilming- 
ton, — Rate of Wages i • . . . . Fage, 28 

CHAPTER VI. 

City of Charleston— its Ruin in the War — Marks of gradual Restoration. — 
The Battery. — Great Fire of 1862. — Charleston account of the Losses of 
the Southern States.— Loud Complaints of Misgovernment and Financial 
Jobbery. — Majority of Negroes in the Legislature. — Atmosphere of Poli- 
tical Suspicion. — Eflbrts of the Whites to regain a share of Representa- 
tion.— The Reform LTnion Page 37 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VII. 



Exports of Cotton from Charleston before and since the War. — Ojjening 
nuule for New York .Si»eculators. — Decrease of Bankinj^ C'apital in South 
Carolina. — A Fortunate Development — The Pho.sphate Deposits. — Their 
E.xtent and (Jharacteristics— Manufacture into Manures. — Great activity 
of the New Trade. — Rice Cultivation likely to tliminish.— The Environs of 
Charleston Varjc 44 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The_Neff'o's-J- feest ~ Jrie.nds." — Sinister complexion of Politics. — Kindly 
Social Influences at work. — State of Ediicition. — System of Medical 
Relief in Charleston. — The Health Statistics. — Proportionate Mortality 
of Whites and Blacks. — Salubrity of the Climate. — Freednien's Savings 
Banks Fage 50 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Capital of South Carolina.— The State Fair a failure. — Usury. — Governor 
Scott on the Position of Affiurs. — The Blue Ridj^e Railway project. — Mr. 
Treasurer Parker on Taxation and Negro Free Labour. — Political Opinions 
of the Farmers. — Arguments for and against Payment of Negro Farm- 
labourers by AV^ages or Share of the Crops. — Riiilway Freight. — Cotton- 
bagging and the Price of Cotton Page 56 

CHAPTER X. 

Entry into Georgia. — The Town of Augusta— its Buildings— its Cotton 
Market. — Revolution in AgriciUture. — Importance of selected Cotton 
Seed.— Large amount of Cotton grown by Small Farmers.-^ JDpinion on 
the Negroes. — Augusta Cotton Factory.— ^Education Act. — Observance 
of tHeSabbath Page 62 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Country from Augusta to Savannah. — Alleged Poorness of the Soil. — 
Population of the State. — (Competition betwixt the Cotton Lands of Georgia 
and the Mississippi "'Bottom." — Probable effects of Good Farming. — 
Want of Stock ajid Grass. — The Central Railroad Compjuiy . . Page 68 

CHAPTER XII. 

The "Forest City." — Abundant demand for Labour.— Great increase of 
Cotton Exports. — Small proportion of Imports. — Disadvantages to 
Savannah of indirect Trade. — Rate of Wages. — Relative purchasing 
power of Money in England and the United States.- -Conclusions of the 
iiritish Consul.— State of Public Health. — Mortality of the Negroes. — 
Banking in Savannah.— Sylvan features of the City .... Page 74 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Railway System of Georgia.— Convenience of the Cars.— The " Captains " 
or Conductors. — Safety of Single-rail Lines. — Greater fertility of the 
Soil in the Interior. — Want of facilities of Branch Traffic. — Dilatory 
Cotton-picking. — General Characteristics of the various Divisions of 
Georgia "... Pag« 81 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XIV 



Central positiou of ISIacon. — Comm;md of the Rciilway Sj'stcm. — Great 
development of Railway Enterprise. — Success of the Old Lines. — State 
Endorsement of Railway Bonds. — The system of Railway Financin<_!:. — 
Does State Endorsement add to the Security of a First-Mortgage Bond I 
— Macon Cotton Manufactures Page 8G 



CHAPTER XV. 

Extraordinary rise of Atlanta from the ashes of the War. — The H. I. 
Kimball House. — Interview with a " Drummer" of the latest Patents. — 
The "Asses' Bridge."— The Hotel System.— Population of Atlanta.— 
Removal of the State Capital. — Origin of the Kimball House Specula- 
tion. — New Executive Mansion. — An Education Meeting. — Costume. — 
Peaches. — The Granite Mountain. — Round Cartersville. — Need of a 
Geological Survey of Northern Georgia Page 93 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Progress of Chattanooga. — Ascent of Lookout Mountain. — Geographical and 
Geological Features.— Traces of the War.— The Rolling INlills.— Danks' 
Puddling Apparatus. — Cost of producing Coal aiirt Iron Ore. — Visit to 
Mineral Properties. — Agricultural qualities of the Land. — Stream of 
Emigrants at Chattanooga. — Navigation of the Tennessee . , Page 103 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The " Valley of the Tennessee " — its first Settlement by White Planters — ■ 
its Physica] Features. — Present Agricultural Condition. — Competition 
betwixt the Old and New Cotton Lands of "the West." — Marks of 
Desolation. — Want of Tiaho ur. — Mnvpmpnt.g t\f tliA Npf^''"pg — Division of \ 
Estates. — Symptoms of Revival. — Progress of the Small HiU Fanners. 

Page 111 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Routine on a Cotton Plantation. — The Surroundings. — Planting and Mar- 
riage. — A Ride "round" 2,500 acres. — Disposal of the Soil. — Organization 
of Labour in the Cotton-fields. — Cotton-picking. — Ginning and Pressing. 
— Need of White Labour. — Live Stock on a Plantation. — The Hogs. — 
"Killing Day." — Pauperism and Free Labour. — Shallow Ploughing. — 
The "Mussel Shoals" of the Tennessee Page\\Q 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Town that Jones built. — Riot in a Liquor Saloon. — What the Planters 
complain of.— Payjiind Privileges of the Negroes. — The Plantation Bell. — - 
The doctrine of Equality run to Seed. — Planting discussions in Jonesboro'. 
— Bad Whisky and other commodities. — Need of Tariff Reform. 

Page 126 

CHAPTER XX. 

Town of Florence.— Traits of the War. — New Bridge over the Tennessee — 
The CiDtton Eiictory. — Abundance of Water-power. — Tariff Duties on 
Machinery. — Possibility of manufacturing Yarn in the South for Export. 



CONTENTS. 

— Cypress Creek. — Natural Beauties and Characteristics of its Ravines. — 
The l)rii)ping Spring's.- — The Phintations. — Openinj,' for Dairies.— Severe 
spell of Frost Vage 134 



CHAPTER XX l. 

Corintli in Mississippi. — The Soil and Surroundings. — A Cotton Manufac- 
turinrr Scheme. — The Country southward on the Mobile and Ohio Rail- 
road. — The " Prairie Land." — Okolona. — A large Plantation on the 
" Prairie." — Preference of the Negroes for their old Masters. — The Share 
and Wages Systems. — The late Robert Gordon Fage 142 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Stoppage on the Railway.—" Doctoring " the Engine. — A Word of Advice to 
Railway Companies. — The Town of Meridian. — Supposed Traces of Coal. 
— The " Ku-Klux-Klan'' — its Rise, Progress, and Decline. — Difficulty of 
finding Teachers of Negro Schools Page, 149 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

From Meridian to Eutaw. — Mr. Stanton's failure to pay the Interest due 
on the A. and C. Bonds. — The Alabama "Prairie" Land. — Bridge over 
the Toml)igbee. — Tuscaloosa. — Decline of Learning in the University.— 
River System of Alabama.— The Warrior and Cahawba Coal and Iron 
Fields. — The Chinese on the Railway Works Fage 157 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Xj'he Vicksburg and Montgomery Railway. — Demopolis.— Desj2air of the 
^ Planters for Labojjr. — Negro Women. — Selma — its CottoiT MllFl. — 
ReT'dVln omie"STunicij)ality. — Claims of the Town to be a Railway Centre. 
— Free School System in Alaliama. The Negroes and the School or Poll 
Tax. — Distribution of the School Money. — National Banking. — Patent 
•' Cotton Transplanter " Fage 165 



CHAPTER XXV. 

Progress of Trade and Population in Montgomery. — Opening of the Mineral 
Districts by Railways. — Existing Ironworks. — Coal and Iron Seams in 
the Cahawba Basin. — The Red Moinitain — its Deposits of HaMuatite. — 
Proximity of the Warrior and Cahawba Coal-fields. — Recent Survey of 
Mr. Tait, F.G.S. — Analyses of Alabama Conl and Iron Ores. — Agricultiinil 
tonalities of the Mineral Region. — Probable Geological History. — Relative 
Price of Montevallo Coal and Pennsylvania Hay Fage 172 



CHAPTER XXVL 

Night Journey to Mobile. - TheTiml)er Region. — TensawRiver. — Emigrants. — 
Obstiidcs to Shipping in the Bay. — Extension of Railway Connections. — 
Expoi-ts of ( 'otton and Lumber. — Increase of the Trade in Coffee. — Want of 
(?ai)it«l. — Banks. — Papa* ^auuikcture.— ('otton Oil Mills — Lesson to 
Planters. — The late Elections. — Health and Amusements . . Fage 180 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Tiie New Road from Mobile to New Orleans. — Singular character of the 
Oountry. — The "Iron Horse" crossing Bays, Lakes, and Lagoons. — 
The " Rigolets." — First Impressions of New Orleans. — Goods on the 
Levee. — The Custom House. — The Streets and Avenues. — The Shell Road. 
— Weather in January.— Vegetation. — Sunday in a City of "AH Nations." 

Page 188 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Population of New Orleans. — Natural Resources. — Revival of Business 
since the War. — Cotton. — Sugar. — Tobacco. — Rice and Grain. — Financial 
Disability. — Disproportion of Imports to Exports. — Great Decline of 
Imports of Coffee and Internal Trade Page 190 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Grievances. — Review of the Tariff — its baneful Effects on the Producing 
Classes. — Deficiency of Mercantile and Bi'.nking Capital. — The " National 
Banks." — Severity of Taxation.— Importance of a Revision of the Fiscal 
System of the United States . . • Page 204 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Trip in the Bradhh Johnson down River. — The Sugar Plantations. — River 
Traffic. — Passengers. — The Scenery Page 214 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Woodlands, Point Celeste, and Magnolia Plantations. — The Sugar-Mills. — 
Sugar-refiniiif Apparatus. — Culture of the Sugar-Canes. — Fowler's Steam 
Ploughs. — Thomson's Road and Field Steamer. — Large Fixed Capital of 
Sugar Estates in Louisiana. — Chinese Labour Page 220 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Matters of general interest in New Orleans. — The " Negro Legislature." — 
The Negroes and the Poll or School Tax. — More about Sugar-growing 
and Sugar-making. — Cost of Louisianian Sugar- making Machinery. — 
Comparison with Prices of Glasgow Machinery for Sugar Plantations. — 
The " Sugar Concretor."- — Probable Causes of backward state of Sugar 
Culture in Louisiana Page 226 

CHAPTER XXXIIL 

Mineral Traces in Louisiana. —Discovery of Rock Salt. — Rich Deposit of 
Crystalline Sulphur. — Ramie. — Ladies' Costume in New Orleans. — Tea. — 
Health Statistics of New Orleans. — Carrolton. — Stroll on the Bank of the 
Mississippi. — Fine Art " Remains."^ — Floral Development in February. 

Page 233 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Incidents at Summit. — Want of Towns in the Interior of Mississippi. — Mr. 
Solomon's Account of his Commercial Relations with the Planters and 
Negi'oes. — The Law of Lien. — Usuiy. — The Free-trade Question. — Some 
Characteristics of the Dram and Drug Shops Page 23!;'^^ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAITEII X\XV. 



The Capital of IMississippi. — Interview with Governor Alcorn. — Average 
I'roduct of Cotton \wr Acre in the " Mississippi Bottom." — Vital and 
Kcononiio Statistics. — Comparison of Wliite and Negro Births and Mar- 
ria),fes. — Value of Farms in 1860 and 1870. — Proposed Payment of the 
Old State Debt . "" Page 247 



CHAPTER XXXVl. 

The "Mississippi Bottom." — Plantation at Austin. — Ob.staclcs to Culti- 
vation ^"i/e Sof) 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Progress of Monij)liis. — Receipts of Cotton. — Buying on Spinners' Orders. — 
Through Bills of Lading. — Import of Foreign Goods at JNlemphis. — Politics 
and Railways of Arkansas. — Extensive River Comniunicatious. — Definition 
of the " C'otton Belt." — Banking and Insurance Capital. — Jefferson Davis. 
— The Southern Presbyterians and the Free Church of Scotland. 

^^ Page 258 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

West and Middle Tennessee. — Backwardness of Rural Ijabour.— Proportion of 
Corn and C'otton Crops. — Spring like " Glorious Summer."— Necessity of 
an approved Rotation of Crops in the Cotton States. — Similarity of 
Cotton and Turnip Husbandry. — City of Nashville. — Disorder of the State 
Finances. — Fanning in Tennessee. — Fallacy in the question of Free v. 
Slave Laboj X. — Conclusions as to the ProspCtts Of Cotton Culture; 
— — Page 266 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Concluding Remarks Page 275 



Index Page 285 



THE 

SOUTHERN STATES SINCE THE WAR. 



CHAPTER I. 

Introduction : General Subjects of Inquirj'. 

[Washington — October 23.] 

I PURPOSE, in a not too liurried tour of the Southern States, to 
give some account of their condition under the new social and 
political system introduced by the civil war. I shall endeavour 
to collect such notes of the progress of their cotton plantations, 
of the state of their labom-ing population and of their industrial 
enterprises, as may help the reader to a safe opinion of their 
means and prospects of development. It will no douljt al.«o 
fall to me tt give such information of their natural resources, 
railways, and other public works, as may tend to show to what 
extent they are fitted to become a profitable field of enlarged 
immigration, settlement, and foreign trade. It is a prevailing idea 
on both sides of the Atlantic that the Southern States are likely 
to make vast progress in the next ten or twenty years, and it must 
be matter of common interest to see, by a near though brief view, 
how far this idea is supported by tlieir actual circumstances. 

The production of cotton is the chief material interest in the 
Southern States. It is the supply of cotton wool they have 
yielded, and may be made to yield, which gives them so powerful 
a hold on the a '■ention of the manufacturing interests of the 
world. ]jut while I shall make close observation of tlie state 
and prospects of cotton culture in the South, I must guard this 
inquiry against all supposed intention of trying to affi^ct the 
current price of cotton, or of making guesses at the crop of the 
coming year or the next. Such questions are discussed in a 
thousand quarters, and from every possible point of view, with 
a keenness and intelligence that no single individual could hope 
to rival. My inquiry will lie one of a more genernl, though at 
the same time, perhaps, of a somewhat deeper and more per- 
manent character. The desirable end is that the Southern 

B 



INTRODUCTION. [en. i. 

States, in due course, should produce two, five, or tenfold the 
quantity of cotton they have yielded any year since the war. 
It is probable that only through a reduction of price can any 
such expansion take place. A few cents per lb. may decide 
whether the looms of Lancashire are to be half idle, to work full 
time, or to be increased in power and number with a rapidity 
that would sjieedily overtake the largest crops which America 
and other cotton regions of the world might produce. But 
whatever the possible demand for cotton-cloth may be were it 
only cheap enough, and whatever the manufacturing resources of 
Great Britain, it is clear that the growers of cotton will not pro- 
duce increased cro]»s save on terms wliich, in the whole circum- 
stances of their agriculture, will yield them a satisfactory profit, 
and that the two interests thus involved can only move forward 
in harmony and in step with each other. The question of a 
larger supply and lower price of cotton resolves itself practically 
into a question of greater skill of culture, greater efficiency and 
economy of labour, better handling in all respects of the whole 
agricultural resources of farms and plantations, whereby the 
necessary profit may accrue from the larger quantity of cotton 
produced at the same cost.. This is a problem which has been 
solved satisfactorily in nearly every department of industry. It 
is a problem wliich the Southern planters have to solve, not only 
in competition with one another, but in competition with other 
cotton-growing countries which now occupy a much higher posi- 
tion in cotton supply than before the American civil war, and 
which, though not so capable in some respects as the Southern 
States, have peculiar advantages of their own — such as cheap 
labour and notions of profit quite im-American — that have kept 
them steadily for years, and may keep them permanently, as 
etTective competitors in this branch of production. 

It may be well, while on this point, to give the relative 
proportions of cotton supply in Great Britain during the three 
years following the close of the American War : — 

COTTON IMPORTED INTO THE UNITED KINGDOM IN nALES.l 

1861). 1S67. 1868. 

American 1,102,740 1,225,690 1,262,060 

Brazil 407,650 437,210 636,807 

EsVTt 167,450 181,170 188,689 

Turkey, &c 32,770 16,990 12,758 

West India, &c 111,830 129,020 100,651 

Surat 1,206,660 1,095,440 1,038,925 

Madras 294,370 163,400 243,949 

Bengal 346,730 249,910 169,198 

China and Japan 18,840 1,940 — 

3,749,040 3,500,770 3,660,127 
Exports from U.S. to all countries 1,548,000 1,553,000 1,656,000 

' John Pender and Co.'s " Statistics of Trade." 



cii. r.] ' GENERAL SUBJECTS OF LYQUIRT. 3 

So that the total exports of cotton to all countries from the 
United States have for these years been less than half the 
cotton of all countries imported into the United Kingdom ; 
while oj" the British imports of cotton the United States have 
contributed less than India alone, after making allowance for 
their somewhat heavier bales. 

It is important to note in connection with these facts that 
Great Britain retains for her own factories but a moiety of the 
cotton she imports from her possessions in India: while she 
now re-exports a smaller proportion of her shipments from 
the United States than in former times. Thus, of the total 
Indian exports in 18G8 the Continent took 720,000 bales, or 
46'73 per cent., and Great Britain retained 821,000 bales, or 
53'27 per cent. In the same year Great Britain exported only 
197,000 bales of American cotton. Whether the cotton of India 
be worked up in France and Germany and other Continental 
countries, or in Great Britain, it enters equally into competition 
with the cotton of the Southern States. But the fact that Great 
Britain parts so largely with the cotton of India in favour of 
American proves the identity of interest which subsists 
betwixt her manufacturers and the growers of the United 
States. If cotton is to be the chief staple of the South, and 
if by its extended production she is not only to restore 
her prosperity but to develop her vast resources to an extent 
hitherto unknown, it is only through the instrumentality 
of the cotton manufactures of England and Scotland that the 
process can be carried out. The cotton trade of the United 
Kingdom leans to American cotton. It is the United Kingdom 
which has its haad on the fabrics, the markets, and all the 
mechanical, artistic, and commercial resources by which the 
produce of the Southern plantations can find a profitable outlet. 
The British merchants and manufacturers say they can take 
an indefinitely increasing quantity of American cotton, but 
it must be produced at softening rather than hardening prices, 
since every substantial advance in value at once checks in 
all the markets of the world the profitable consumption of 
cotton goods. If the South cannot meet these conditions, the 
progress of British manufacturing industry will be so far 
retarded. If the British manufacturers cannot extend their 
operations at the price necessary to produce the raw material, 
the progress of the South, so far as it depends on the growth 
of cotton, will be retarded also. Such is the equal disability 
which the question of cotton supply imposes on both sides, 
and there does not appear to be the slightest room for any 
misunderstanding. 

There are questions at issue in the Southern States worthy 
of investigation, which, however closely bound up in the com- 

B 2 



4 INTRODUCTION. [ch. i. 

mercial problem, have also a moral significance of the highest 
human interest. The emancipation of four millions of negro 
slaves is in itself a revolution of wliieli the world has seldom 
seen the like, either in magnitude, in suddenness aid com- 
pleteness, in the desolation of war amidst which it was 
accomplished, or in the influence of its ulterior results on the 
future of mankind. In contemplating such an event one is 
raised above commercial interests to the Ijorders of the divine 
and the religious in human destiny. To ol)serve the effect 
of such a total change of personal standing and social rela- 
tions on the character, the industry, the sense of responsibility, 
and general habits of the negroes — how well or ill they adapt 
themselves to their new conditions of life, and whether they are 
likely, as IVee ])eople, to rise in dignity and prosperity, or to 
stumble downward into deeper physical and social degradation 
— must be acknowledged to be matter of more than merely com- 
mercial interest. Yet, in such a line of inquiry there is obviously 
the key to the immediate future industrial condition of the 
Soutliern States. In its economic bearings, it is the question of 
the relative value and efficiency of slave and free labour in the 
South, with negroes as the labourers, so often contested in theory, 
but now put to the test of practical experiment. The five years 
that have elapsed since the war cannot be expected to have solved 
this question, worth so many years of valiant trial and endea- 
vour. But it may be discovered whether, so far, there be signs 
of that success of free negro labour so much to be desired, or of 
that failure so often feared. Nor can it be much less interesting 
to see how the white ]w]mlation of the South, more especially 
the owners of slave property, arc bearing themselves under the 
new system. They were doubly crushed— crushed by a war in 
which they engaged with reckless bravery, and crushed under 
the fall of a system of servile labour with which their wealth 
and fortune, the cultivation and existence of their estates, were 
so closely intertwined that to destroy it seemed to be utter ruin. 
The mettle of the Southern people is thus ])ut to a severe trial. 
If the well-doing and well-being of the emancipated negroes 
would be gratifying to every benevolent feeling of the human 
heart, a course of fresh energy and enterprise on the part of the 
whit<3 jtopulation of the South would be lionourable to the 
courage and i-esource of the superior race. Are they throwing 
off all lethargy- and despondency, and exerting themselves with 
hearty resolve and enliglitened effort to build up the prosperity 
of the country on a new and more stable basis ( AVhat improve- 
ments have been made in the system of cultivation, and in the 
means of economising labour and fertilising the soil, to compen- 
sate the lost profits of slavery ? And to what extent does 
Federal legislation aid and encourage, or hinder and discourage, 



CH. I.] GENERAL SUBJECTS OF INqUIRY. 5 

the freed labourers and the owners and occupiers of land in the 
South to accomplish the great work which they are called upon 
to do ? If taxation be necessarily heavy, is it levied with equity 
and justice ? Does the tariff give fair play to the agricultural 
industr}'- of the South and West, or, in being made more consis- 
tent with the just interests of these great sections of the Union, 
may it become more consistent with the interests of the whole 
American people ? I am indicating the questions which must 
occupy any investigation of the condition of the Southern 
States, and do not know that I have nearly exhausted them. It 
would be vain to think that a definite and conclusive reply could 
1)6 given to so many queries ; but as they have all been moi-e or 
less keenly canvassed by an extremely intelligent and energetic 
population, and are amenable to facts, it may be possible to 
throw some light on a subject so deeply interesting. It is mani- 
fest that great caution will have to be observed against too hasty 
conclusions. I shall have, in the first instance, to describe 
simply, and to collect facts and corroborations, and allow evi- 
dence to accumulate, before attempting to arrive at results. 

It must be said that, so far as the production of cotton goes, 
the South is giving proof of gradual recovery from the exhaus- 
tion and disorganization of the war. It may be wrong to rest 
on cotton as the sole test of Southern prosperity. Yet, as 
cotton is the chief product of the South, it is a good index, and it 
may be well, as evidence of the progress made under free labour 
and of what had been done under the slave system, to put on 
record here the crops in the following years : — 

UNDER SLAVE LABOUR.l 

1858-9 4,019,000 

1859-60 4,861,000 

1860-1 3,850,000 

UNDER FllEE LABOUR.^ 

1866 1,900,000 

1867 2,-340,000 

1868 2,380,000 

The crop of 1869 shows a further increase, and has been stated 
unofficially to have been fully 3,000,000 bales ; while the crop 
of this season promises a much larger annual increase than any 
year since the war. On the other hand, there are some unfavour- 
able symptoms in the Southern States. There is not only much 
political agitation, which may be sound and unavoidable enough, 
but there are signs of disaffection to Federal rule, and occasional 
outbreaks of violence, engendered apparently by fierce party 

1 Report of B. F. Nourse, United States Commissioner to Paris Exposi- 
tion of 1867. 2 Department of Agriculture, Report, 1868. 



6 INTRODUCTION. [cu. i. 

hatred, that may he of small moment in presence of returning 
prosperity, hut, if spreading or long-continued, cannot fail to 
react unfavourahly on the material interests of the country, and 
require to be taken into account. 

It may be added in these introductory remarks that I did not 
leave home without recommendations and facilities of access to the 
best inforniiition in tho principal Southern States ; and that I 
have also cordially to acknowledge the courtesy of the heads of 
various depailments of the Administration at Washington. 
"\\'ith respect to the census returns, I must own a certain degree 
of disappointment. A census of the whole United States is 
taken, by Act of Congress, at the close of every decennial period. 
Many of the States also take a decennial census within their 
respective bounds, and so order it in point of time as to make it 
fall in the middle term of the decennial period of the Union 
census. Had this outline been fdled up, there would have been 
a return of the population of the United States in 1860, when 
the war was just beginning ; again in 1865, when the war had 
just closed' and now in 1870, when five years of peace have 
followed five years of sangiunary intestine strife. But a census 
is not taken, probably cannot be taken, in the United States, 
even in time of peace, with the swiftness and accuracy of the 
smaller though more densely peopled areas of European countries. 
There are consequently both blanks and delays in the census 
returns of the United States, and I may not derive so much 
advantage from this source as I anticijiated. 

Still, incidental advantages and disadvantages apart, the 
period at least is not ill-chosen for the i)urpose I have set be- 
fore me ; and, considering the magnitude of the subject and its 
numerous ramifications, the utmost any w-riter can w'ell hope or 
promise to do, is, while keeping a steady eye on the more im- 
portant practical questions at issue, to convey such knowledge 
of tlie country and such means of judgment as may be gathered 
only by personal travel and observation. 



CHAPTER II. 

Mount Vernon. — Washington's life as a Planter. — The Woods of Virginia. — 
Aspect of the Country from Acquia Creek to Richmond. — Agricultural 
Divisions of Virginia. — Their general Characteristics. 

[Richmond, Va.— Oc«. 26 to Nov. 3.] 
Befoke proceeding from the American capital southward into 
Virginia, I could not deny myself the pleasure of a visit to the 
ancient homestead of Washington, whose historic figure and 
noble character are ever present to the mind at the quiet city 
in which the Eepublic has not unwisely estahhshed its seat 
of government. The pilgrimage to Mount Vernon is easily 
accomplished. A sail down the Potomac is almost as delightful 
as a sail on one of the Highland lochs of the Clyde. The 
scenery, indeed, is neither bold nor picturesque, but is well de- 
fined, and in many of its features beautiful. Tb i shore on either 
side is traced by a line of yellowish sandy bluffs, not very high, 
but wavy in their outline, and clothed to the water edge with 
young forest wood, arrayed at this season in all the colours of the 
rainbow ; with a background of rolling upland, on which there 
is the same crown of forest timber, sombre in the distance, and 
stretches of corn and pasture visible in the middle space, over 
which a brown and moorish aspect rests. I had noticed a similnr 
air as of wilderness on more level tracts, all the way from Ntw 
York to Philadelphia. The stalks of Indian corn in autumn are 
either gathered up in large sheaves, or left standing gaunt-like 
where they grew, shorn only of their richly-laden ears, with no 
white stubble, but only the red-brown till beneath. On pasture 
land the wild grasses have sprung far up in autumn, and over- 
shadowed the more tender blade, which, after the scorching heat, 
has begun to grow green again under the rains and temperate 
sun of a second sunnuer. AVith Alaryland on one shore of the 
Potomac and Virginia on the other, both of which States have 
passed in a few years from slave culture to war and devastation, 
. and not infrequent desertion of lands, the darkening elfect of 
such natural causes can only be increased. But as the great 
white-coated steamboat, drawing only two or three feet of water, 
glides rapidly on, there is no want of objects made memor- 



8 MOUNT VERNOX. [cH. ii, 

able by the war, if nuthing else, to arrest attention. AVithout 
even looking back on the city of AVusliington, with the dome of 
its Capitol always prominent, but always less enchanting as 
distance brings it into more critical view, there is the long 
bridge, slanting many miles over the shallows of the estuary 
from Washington towards Alexandria, across which the Federal 
troops defiled to meet the hosts of the Confederacy ; overlooking 
it is Arlington House, the residence in ante-war times of General 
Lee, now the property of the Federal Government on an arrear- 
of-taxcs title, and converted into a military cemetery ; on the 
other side is Navy Yard, and away down on the Virginia shore 
is Alexandria, with the steeple visiljle of Christchurch, to which, 
though ten miles from j\Iount Vernon, General Washington was 
accustomed to go with his household for Divine worship, and 
where a pew ]')ible of his is still preserved as a sacred relic. The 
remains of earthworks are seen on some of the higher ground on 
both Ijanks, and Fort Foote, an extempore construction, armed 
with heavy guns, is still a power on the INTaryland shore. On 
the same side is Fort Washington, an old defence of solid mason- 
work, wdiich was destroyed in the war of 1812, and afterwards 
rebuilt. Such is the approach from the city of Washington to 
the country-seat of the Commander-in-Chief of the War of 
Independence. 

!Mount Vernon is situated on a somewhat higher bluff, and its 
woods are richer than most others on the Potomac. Its little 
cupola and grey roof, when first seen, are not striking. It is 
oidy on ascending to the colonnade of the mansion, formed of 
eiglit stately pillars, and looking round, that one perceives the 
beauty of the site, the good taste, the simple dignity, the fine 
order and arrangement of the whole place. The Potomac, as 
seen from the piazza, and in reality the rear of the building, is 
more like an inland lake than an estuary or a river. It is land- 
locked towards the capital by the ridge on which Fort Washing- 
ton is erected, and by the sinuous shores towards the sea ; there 
is a grassy ]>lot down to the edge of the shelving bank of 
forest ; and as one looks through the openings among the trees 
upon the smooth and glistening waters of the Potomac, and a 
coiisting schooner or oyster wherry with her white sails passes 
by, the effect in the pure bright atmosphere of this part of the 
world is extremely lovely. The landward front of jNIount 
Vernon is not less interesting in its way. On one side is the 
kitchen and on the other the domestic servants' apartments. A 
covered way of light open arches connects these houses with the 
main building. The lawn, though not extensive, is neatly laid 
out. First, a circular plot, then a long rectangle of grass. Hanked 
on both sides by old trees and avenues. At the end of the lawn 
is a gateway which appears to have been the main entrance ; 



CH. II.] STATE OF VmaiNLL 9 

beyond is a grass park, with orchards sloping downward on 
either hand ; behind all, woods and woods. One could hardly 
imagine a more exact re})roduction of an old English country 
seat. Parallel to the lawn there is a vegetaV)le garden on the 
same side as the kitchen, and on the other side a flower garden, 
with the remains of a row of negro houses, the windows of 
which seem to have had the full benefit of the fragrant flowers 
and plants of which Washington was evidently an ardent 
admirer and cultivator. There are still shown in this garden 
two " sweet-scented shrubs " (Calycanthus Ploridus), presented 
to him by his compatriot and successor in the Presidential chair 
— Jefferson. The leaves of this plant shed a delightful odour, 
and when in full flower its sweetness fills the whole air. The 
uflices are situated in a hollow part of the ground, to which a 
paved M-ay descends iVom the front of the mansion. Considering 
that JNIount Vernon is a frame building, it seems in a quite 
wonderful state of preservation. The frames are raised above 
the ground-level over cellars extending under the whole building, 
and entered by a flight of steps and wide door at each end of 
the colonnade. These doors, when left open, allow a current of 
fresh air to pass through all this under-story, in which ^\'ashing- 
ton kept his wine and other household stores. It is hardly 
necessarj" to speak of the interior, which has been so often 
described. There are the quaint rooms and quaint stair- 
cases one expects to find in old country houses, and various 
relics which have hardly a place in these notes. There is a 
noble dining-room, that appears, with the apartments above it, 
to have been an addition to the original building, and from which 
a door opens on the coloiniade, and on the cool and refreshing 
breeze and charming scene of the Potomac. One can fancy 
Lafayette retiring here from the table to smoke his pipe or 
cigar of pure Virginian, and, in presence of his sincere and 
noble-minded host, indulging in delightful dreams of the coming 
age of " liberty, equality, and fraternity." All the details of 
Mount Vernon, apart from political associations, convey a vivid 
impression of a planter's life and surroundings in America a 
hundred years ago. Washington is said to have possessed ten 
miles of river shore and six miles inland. There was accommo- 
dation at Mount Vernon for all the service required in the 
household, the gardens and orchards, the stables and dairy, and 
such work -of cultivation and forestry as belonged to the esta- 
blishment of a country gentleman, liut Washington liad his 
extensive territory to reclaim by degTees, and he would have his 
cleared ground and labour settlements among the woods, and 
the work of the axe and the plough would go on from year to 
year under his Avise guidance, with occasional military operations 
against the Indians, in which his heroic spirit would find vent 



in MOUNT FERNON. [ch. ii. 

through all the kindly tendencies of his nature. Still, with all 
this activity, the passion of money-making, so rampant in the 
present day, could scarcely have been felt by Washington. 
Blount Vernon is not in the tobacco region of Virginia. It was 
the Westmoreland, even by name, of this second England. It 
had soil, and sun, and variety of product, in comparison with 
which, indeed, the northern moorland of England was but a 
desert. There would be alumdance of Indian corn, some wheat, 
every variety of fruit and fowl, trattickings in timber, and all the 
rude plenty of a wild but teeming land. But no money-bags, 
no accumulation of speculative stocks, or of solid capital in the 
Funds. The only plan of life which can be conceived as followed 
by Washington is that of working out, by great personal sacri- 
fice and heroism, in Virginian wilds, the highest form of life then 
known in England. A great change seems to have j)assed over 
the world since those days. To be master of thousands, tens of 
thousands, and millions of dollars in " cash down " is now the 
ruling passion. There are multitudes of rich men and their sons 
in New York, and other great American towns, who, if animated 
by only a little of the spirit of Washington, could ])lant many 
a ]\Iount Vernon, and cause many a wilderness in the United 
States to blossom like the rose. But the spirit ^vhich founded 
America and American Independence is not remarkffbly pre- 
valent in the world to-day. The fortunes made by trade and 
commerce in the old country are often turned with happy and 
beautifying effect on the waste places of England and Scotland ; 
yet this seldom occurs in the United States, where the heroic 
■work of subduing the untamed land is left for the most part to 
the poor tempest-tossed emigrants of Europe. 

The Virginian shore of the Potomac down to Acquia Creek 
is of the same type as at Mount Vernon. The sand bluff is 
more or less naked to the eye, the foliage more or less varied 
and brilliant in its hues. A few miles past Mount Vernon 
there is a long range of building, not in very good re]iair, but 
which yet might be supposed to be the residence of a landholder 
struggling under difficulties of labour and want of cajiital. It 
is occupied as a fishing-station, at a rent of 1,000 dollars per 
annum. There are shad and herring fishings on the Potomac. 
The herring shoals begin to come in the spring, and there is 
probably a busy scene at that period of the year. But there is 
little mark of extensive fishery operations on the Potomac, and 
the herring probably have a good time of it in these and other 
American waters. 1 should scarcely have noticed this fishing 
station but for the bright and exquisitely blended colour of the 
trees amid whicdi it is set. The composition of the Virginian 
woods affords scope for a much deeper study than I can give 
to it. The very bru.shwood develops elements of commercial 



CH. II.] STATE OF VIRGINIA. 11 

value. But besides the hickory, the cedars, and maples, one is 
struck by the various oaks, the ashes, the chestnuts, and beeches, 
so familiar in the "Old Country," and some of the species may 
not be indigenous. Six or seven generations of British planters 
have passed over this memorable land of Virginia. 

The leaves were falling fast towards the end of October, but 
the bare branches, seen from a little distance, only added a new 
variety of colour to the beauty of the woods. The Eichmond 
and Potomac Eailroad soon passes literally from the bosom of 
the water to a table-land of considerable elevation, which 
drops down again into the valley of the Eappahannock, where 
Fredericksburg, the scene of a heavy Federal defeat in the war, 
conies in view. The old town does not seem to have suffered 
nuich from the furious cannonade which the hostile forces poured 
over the tops of its highest steeples from the opposite banks of 
the river, and there was a stir of people about the station, 
including not a few thriving-like country folk, that was cheer- 
ing to see. The heights behind Fredericksburg, on which the 
Confederates were posted, are neither so steep nor so lolty as 
the accounts of the battle might have led one to imagine. The 
character of the country, indeed, all the way from tlie IVjtomac 
to near Eichmond, is the same. There are no mountains or hills, 
and no rock, but a rolling alluvial country, broken only by 
ravines where the streams in the course of ages have washed a 
deep bed out of the unresisting soil. The deepest cuttings of 
the railroad track reveal only the same bottomless deposit of 
clayey sand, with but a light top-dressing of vegetable mould, 
as is seen on the exposed bank of the Potomac. The land is 
well cleared, the woods in many places having been cut down to 
mere belts, the boundaries betwixt one property and another, 
and not more than are necessary for shelter. The soil has also 
at one time been nearly all cultivated. The marks of the plough 
are everywhere seen. But thousands of acres are rapidly re- 
turning to a state of nature, and little forests of young pines are 
springing where Indian corn and even wheat may have recently 
grown. There is a curious fact mentioned in connection with 
Ihe Virginian woods. When the oaks are cut down, they are 
followed by a crop of pines, and when the pines fall under the 
axe the oaks come again. When the soil has been exhausted by 
bad cultivation, and is left to take its own w^ay, it is prolific of 
pines. Of this peculiarity I had ocular proof in many fields, 
over which the furrows were still traceable, covered with little 
pine-shoots, thick as if planted in a nursery. The soil in this 
district of Virginia is certainly not so rich as to dispense with 
the aid of skilful and liberal culture ; but the tracts on which 
crops had been grown this year showed, in the standing stalks 
of corn, fair powers of vegetation; and the alhudal character of 



18 RICHMOND. (on. u. 

the soil must render it duly responsive to subsoil jtloughing and 
manure. Along the Orange and Alexandria llailroad, M-hicli 
passes from Washington to liichmond larthcr to the west, there 
are richer and more pt^opled districts, and yet nmch land ready 
for new owners, the highest i»rice expected for which is twenty 
dollars, or 4/. to 5/. ])er acre ; but from five to ten dollai-s per 
acre would pi'obaljly purchase farms of any size along the railway 
route from Ac(j[uia Creek. 

The district to which I have been referring is the last which 
the ])eo])le of Virginia wish a stranger to see. It is held to be 
the poorest part of the State, and is " the Wilderness " of the war 
times, where most of the great battles were providently fought. 
Yet from Fredericks! )urg to Ashland, some fifteen miles from 
Kichmond — a pretty little place, with several fine houses, and a 
Methodist College, attended by a large number of hearty young 
men — there must be tens of thousands of acres, in the immediate 
vicinity of a great line of railway communication, capable of 
successful settlement, and of develojting all the conditions of 
fruitful, prosi)erous, and happy country life. In thus attempting 
to estimate the worst part of Virginia there is at least the 
advantage of arriving a fortiori at a conception of what the 
bettor ])arts must be. 

At Uiclnnond the scene changes, and it is only in the capital 
of the State that one finds a key to all the various districts and 
agricidtural resources of Virginia. The tide flows up the deep 
channel of the James Eiver to Richmond, l)earing large sea- 
going vessels to the bridges ; but it flows no farther, a series of 
falls immediately above Kichmond stopping thus abruptly the 
tidal flow. This has led to a division, not infrequent on the 
American continent, into " Tide-water Virginia," ajjplied to the 
territory along both banks of the James Iliver betwixt Richmond 
and the Atlantic, and " Granite or Piedmont Virginia," the 
region round the upper course of the James, terminated by 
the famous Blue liidge jNTountain chain, where the sulphur 
springs are found, and whither the Americans, from New York 
to New Orleans, repair every summer season for health, pleasure, 
and invigoration. There are many large and i)roductive larms 
along the tidal course of the James, and in the peninsular 
countries formed by the James and York Rivers. Two sons of 
General Lee, whose death has called forth profound marks of 
respect in Richmond as well as all parts of the South, cultivate 
large estates in tide-water Virginia ; and new families, both from 
the N'orthern States and from England, have purchased hind ami 
settled in this i)art of the State. But the heat in sunnner is 
severe to all but the acclimatised. The land is low, and in some 
places swam])y ; and near Norfolk, the great shipping port of 
Virginia, witii probal>ly the best and most capacious harbourage 



CH. n.] STATE OF VIROINIA. 13 

on the American shores, there is the " Dismal Swamp," which is 
neither agreeable in aspect nor salubrious in effects. The Vir- 
ginians themselves are of opinion that the " Piedmont " of the 
State, from its European temperature and upland character, tlie 
variety and homeliness of its agricultural productions, its water 
power, and its facilities for mamifacturing industry, is the best 
adapted for 1 British settlers. Betwixt the Blue Kidge and the 
Alleghany range is the great valley of Virginia, that, with the 
exception probably of the Shenandoali Valley, its northern part, 
has been less distui-bed and im])aired by the war than any other 
section of the State. Then tliere are the midland counties, 
where tobacco is the principal crop, and where "planting," as it 
may be distinguislied from siin])le farming, is carried on with 
no inconsiderable prosperity. The southern counties along tlie 
border of North Carolina have many cotton -fields. All the way 
from Petersburg to Weldon the white woolly bolls are seen at 
this season gleaming deep down among the green leaves of the 
cotton shrub. In all these various divisions of Virginia, thougli 
in some more than in otliers, properties whicli in auy other part 
of the world would be deemed valuable are offered for sale 
greatly in excess of the demand. 



CHAPTER III. 

City of Richmond. — Some features of its Trade and Industry. — Tone of 
Politics. — The General Assembly. — Testimony borne of the Freedmen by 
Employers. — Rate of Wages. — Dearness of Articles of Consumption, and 
its Causes.— Population of the State and City. — Schools for the Negro 
Children. 

[Richmond, YA.—Oct. 26 to Nov. 3.] 

TuE capital of Virginia, and erewhile of the Southern Confedera- 
tion, is a busy and spirited town, and has a very engaging 
population. lUit all its importance does not strike one at tlie 
first glance, and many a traveller ou the through route to the 
South may pass away from it with an inadequate opinion of a 
place rendered historical by recent events. The city is situated 
on a series of hills and vales, and only a small part of it is seen 
on (Altering or passing through the streets, until sonu; elevation 
is reached where the eye takes an extended view. It is pleasing 
and animating to look down a busy and stately street from the 
top of one of the heights, and see it, after traversing the valley 
below, rising in a straight line up the side of the hill beyond ; 
and of such coups-cVceil there are many in Kichmond. Like 
most of ihe American towns, its streets are laid otf in straight 
lines, and crossed by others eijually straight. It may be called, 
as well as Washington, a " city of magnificent distances," for the 
outlines traced for the future expansion of the capital of Virginia 
much exceed its actual development. It has its Broad Street, like 
I*hiladel])hia, intended to be the main artery of a great city, and 
yet occupying but a subordinate, and certainly not a central, 
place in the existing oi-ganization of the town. Tlie lower 
ground along the bank of the James liiver is Inisy and dusty, 
the seat of tobacco and other produce warehouses, ironworks and 
foundries, factories and M'orkshops, and rattles all day long with 
the noise of lorries drawn by four mules, with a negro mounted 
postilion-wiise, who loves dearly to crack his whip, and cries to 
his animals more than enough. Sambo is a natural-born Cockney. 
"Wlit'ther one meets him in the hotels, or driving his lorry in the 
streets, or roaring at the railway stations for the honour of carry- 
ing one's luggage, he gives assurance of a man who imbibes aptly 



en. III.] STATE OF riRGINIJ. 15 

the r/enivs loci, and contributes his full share to all the smartness 
and animation, polite or noisy, of the scene. 

It is not within my purpose to describe the trade, the me- 
chanical industries, or the various phases of civic life in 
Kichmond. But some leading features may be mentioned in a 
few sentences. The Tredegar Ironworks, reconstituted since 
the war, if not the largest of the kind in the United States, 
execute an almost unequalled variety of work, not only making 
iron, but every kind of iron castings — from railway spikes to 
field artillery — with equal resource and success, and are carried 
on with vigour and activity, employing a thousand hands. The 
Company use annually a certain portion of Scotch pig, notwith- 
standing the high tariff duty of seven dollars per ton, as a sort of 
luxury on account of its greater fluidity and adaptation for 
foundry purposes. Various smaller foundries and machine 
shops in Eichmond display much spirit and ingenuity in the 
manufacture of engines and other implements for agricultural 
purposes. I have also remarked the great number of warehouses 
for the sale of phosphates and artificial manures, as well as 
guano, ground bones, and other natural fertilisers, showing how 
much the attention of the agricultural community is directed to 
the means of enriching the soil. Virginia has within herself an 
active propaganda, both chemical and manufacturing, of this 
new philosophy ; but manufacturers of soluble phosphates from 
Baltimore and other northern seaports visit Eichmond regularly, 
and pass down south through all the leading centres and sea- 
ports as far as Montgomery and Selma in Alabama, doing a 
satisfactory trade. The discovery of marl deposits in the tidal 
region of Virginia, as well as of the Carolinas, has given an 
impulse to this question of fertilisation that is daily extending. 
Though the use of artificial manures may not be so widely spread 
among the farming population, yet there is no part probably of 
England or Scotland where more genuine interest is taken in 
the question, and as the movement is not confined to this State, 
where it is not least important, it is well worthy of being noted 
as a sign of reviving agricultural improvement and enterprise in 
the Southern States. ^ 

The war, heavily as it pressed by fire and sword and siege 
upon Eichmond, has left but few traces in the external aspect of 
the city. A few blocks of building still stand in all the ruin in 
which they were left by the fires lighted on the night of the 
evacuation. The tobacco warehouses burned down on that wild 
occasion have been replaced by temporary erections. But the 
" Libby Prison " and " Castle Thunder," and other great houses 
of business, which were devoted to the reception of Federal 
prisoners and Confederate wounded, are now restored to trade. 
A sober sadness may be described as the prevailing mood of the 



IG RIC/IMOXl). [CH. HI. 

people, wliioli tlic death of General Lee has probably at the 
present moment dec])oned. There is no dejection, no loss of 
honourable pride, and little repining at the bitter consequences 
of the war, but a resolve, more dee])ly felt than strongly ex- 
pressed, not only to accept the situation, but to turn it to 
account of improvement, and to build up anew the prosperity 
of the old Commonwealth, which the Virginians love with an 
ardour and a faith in the future hardly credible in a community 
so greatly shattered, and so bereft for the time of the prestige it 
long maintained in the Union. 

The tone of politics in Virginia, after some experience of New 
York, seems to me very temi)erate. The old part}-- in the State, 
called in electioneering parlance Democrats, as distinguished 
from the Kepublicans and Ivadicals, or the new party introduced 
by the issue of the war and upheld by the authority of the 
Federal Government, has regained in the recent elections a 
moderate ascendency. An incident, which has just occurred in 
the Courts, appears also to be regarded with no little cjuiet grati- 
fication by the native Virginians. One Chahoon, a lawyer, who 
was made Mayor of Richmond by the Federal Executive at the 
eiose of the war, and who failed to be elected in regular course 
under the Act of Reconstruction, has been tried and sentenced 
to four years in the Penitentiary for attempting to defraud the 
State of 7,(^00 dollars by forgery. It was the case of an estate 
left without heirs, of which Cliahoon attemj^ted to secure posses- 
sion by forging documents in the name of fictitious claimants. 
The Federal Government could hardly avoid making what are 
called " military appointments " to civil offices in the state of 
affairs which arose on the dissolution of the Confederate Govern- 
ment ; and where these appointments were in favour of officers of 
repute and discretion in the Federal army, there was a guarantee 
not only of honour and integrity, but of the temporary character 
of such infraction of the regular course of election. But Chahoon 
appears to have been an adventurer — a specimen, pure and simple, 
uf the " carpet-bagger " — and his conviction and punishment have 
given nndisguisedjoy to the native party of the State, who see 
"in tlunn a sign that things are coming right again, and that law 
and j list ice will have free course in Virginia. 

Tlie General Assembly of Virginia has been holding fin- a 
sveek or two an adjourned session, and transacting without 
excitement a good deal of important State business. As I had 
strolled up to look at the Capitol, which— as well as a very plea- 
sant West End, Cijual in lieauty and retirement to the best parts 
of Brooklyn or New York, with nnich more notable in Richmond 
— is only discovered as one mounts one eminence after another, 
I stepped in to see the Virginian rarliament. The Speaker 
of the House of Delegates was a reflective and intellectual- 



en. III.] STATE OF VIRGINIA. 17 

looking gentleman, himself a Delegate, and perfectly versed in 
the duties of his place. The Clerk, owing to some pain or 
weakness in his eyes, had a white bandage round his temples, 
])ut was equally master of his position. 1 ctnuited among the 
delegates three or four coloured men, one of whom \vas a pure 
negro, very well attired, and displaying not more jewellery than 
a gentleman might wear ; while another, who seemed to have 
some white blood in his veins, was a quite masculine-looking 
person, both physically and mentally. The Senate was presided 
over by the Lieutenant-Governor of the State, who was altogether 
like a young member of the British House of Lords, as the Senate 
itself had a country-gentleman sort of air not perceptible in the 
Lower House, which more resembled a Town Council or Paro- 
chial Board than the House of Commons. There were two 
coloured Senators among tlie number, quite black, but sena- 
torial enough, and like men who in Africa would probably have 
been chiefs. In the Lower House the coloured delegates mingled 
freely with the othsr members, but in the Senate these two sat 
in a corner by themselves. Yet they seemed to take a cordial 
interest in the proceedings, and manifested all sympathy with 
the Senators who addressed the House. As I have never been 
able to understand the ofhcial monotone of our own courts, I 
cannot profess to have been able to follow- every word with all 
the differences of intonation here ; but the procedure was quite 
intelligible, and I was pleased and amused to see how truly the 
form and pressure of the " Mother of Parliaments," after a 
century of separation, were reproduced in her Virginian child. 
The presence of coloured men in the British Parliament is im- 
possible, simply because the negro element is not among us ; 
but the Virginian feature I have ventured to notice is only a 
practical reflection of the great deliverance of Lord Mansfield 
— that slavery is incompatible Avith the law, air, and soil of 
England. As long as the political equality of the negro is not 
pushed to any greater extreme than it is like to be in Virginia, 
or made the factious instrument of bad and trading politicians, 
it can hardly be the cause of much trouble or discord in any 
part of the United States. 

The testimony generally borne of the negroes is that they 
work readily when regularly paid. Wherever I have consulted 
an effective employer, whether in the manufacturing works of 
Eichmond or on the farms and plantations, such is the opinion, 
with little variation, that has been given. In the country, 
negroes get from eight to ten dollars a month, with house and 
provisions. In Eichmond, for common and ordinary labour, 
they are paid fifteen dollars a month with proA"isions, or thirty 
dollars and find themselves in the necessaries of life. In various 
branches of more or less skilled labour of which negroes are 

c 



18 RICHMOND. [cu. in. 

capable the wages are mucli higher, and approach the/standard 
of remuneration to white \mn\ in the same occupations. A dollar 
a day for common labour will appear high to the best labourers 
in England or Scotland, but there is a necessary qualification to 
be made in any comparison of the relative rates of wages in the 
two countries. The dollar does not go so far as its exchange- 
worth in British money would imply. The price of nearly 
everything bought in the shops is very high ; the labourer 
cannot command the same comfort as the labourer of other 
countries, save at a much higher monetary rate of wages, which 
necessarily augments the cost of American products, and im- 
pairs the commercial and competitive power of American 
industry. This state of things, arising from artificial causes 
operating over the whole United States, and inflating the 
monetary rate, not of wages alone, but of every form of profit, 
without making the working or any other class richer (what is 
gained nominally in wages and profits passing away in expendi- 
ture), has already all but destroyed various branches of American 
trade, and enhances materially the productive cost even of such 
staples as wheat, tobacco, and cotton, in which the United States 
have a natural pre-eminence. This will probably Ije more ap- 
parent now every year, until it forces itself on the public mind, 
and brings about a wholesome rectification. ■' 

liichmond has several fine streets of shops and warehouses, 
that are not so well or fully stocked as similar places of busi- 
ness in towns of inferior importance in England, and yet where 
every article needful in any rank of life may usually be pur- 
chased. But one is astonished at the prices demanded and paid, 
and when the shopkeeper is asked he says it is the result of 
the high tariff on foreign goods, which is no doubt largely true. 
The difference, however, betwixt his price and the real value of 
the goods is three or four times the amount of the Customs 
duty, sugg(^sting other evils, starting probably from the tariff, 
but in active independent operation. The duties, being high, 
are more conveniently paid in New York than they could be 
in the South, where capital is scarce. Tliis leads to indirect 
trade as well as transit, and the piling of one large profit on 
the top of another before the goods reach the consumer. Prices, 
moreover, received an inflation from the enormous expenditure 
and paper currency of tlie war, which the approximation now of 
the pajier dollar to gold value and the pressui'e of taxation do 
not appear in many cases to have materially reduced. People 
speak, in giving an estimate of values, of " ante-bellum " and 
" post-bellum " prices. Things are thus floating along on an 
artificial level produced by all these derangements, rendering 
the cost of living and the cost of production in every depart- 
ment expressed in money very liigh as .compared with otlicr 



en. III.] STATE OF FIROINIA. 19 

countries. It is evident wliat a heavy incubus such a state of 
tilings must be on a State like Virginia, impoverished and 
crippled by years of devastating war, and needing supremely 
every natural facility in the cultivation of her soil and the ^ 
increase of her wealth and produce. 

The census returns of the City or State have not yet been 
published, but I have been politely informed by Colonel Parker, 
the United States Marshal here, that the population of Virginia 
may be taken as 1,245,000, showing a decrease of the population 
of the State since 1860 of from 2(3,000 to 30,000. The popu- 
lation of the city of Eichmond is 51,093. In 1860 Eichmoud 
had not more than 35,000 inhabitants, but the apparent increase 
is mainly the result of an extension of the municipal bound- 
aries. The Marshal, however, claims for Eichmond, as it was 
before the enlargement of the bounds, an increase of 5,000. 
This result is questioned by citizens of much information, who 
are disposed to think the population both of State and of city 
lower than in the return. It is quite usual to find the census 
questioned in the United States, and the mode of taking it — 
not all in one day as in Great Britain, but by piecemeal and 
irregularly — is certainly not compatible with strict accuracy. 
The President has ordered a new census in New York, and will 
probably do so also in Philadelphia and other places where the 
returns have excited dissatisfaction. The decrease in A^irginia 
is believed to be chiefly in negroes, who were accustomed under 
the slave system to be sent South in considerable numbers, and 
who have migrated in the same direction voluntarily since their 
emancipation. Contractors, themselves coloured men, also come 
down from the hotels in Boston and other Northern towns, and 
engage negroes to go to them as servants. But the tendency of 
the black man is to go South, and the probability is that, Vir- 
ginia will continue to supply the Southern plantations with less 
or more labour. 

The Eadical party in the State take credit for having opened 
schools in Eichmond immediately after the war for the educa- 
tion of negro children. They say that from 5,000 to 6,000 
were thus brought under instruction, and that the consequence 
now is that black children can read and write, wdiile many of 
the white children are untaught. There has been no school 
assessment hitherto in Virginia, but the Constitution under 
the Act of Eeconstruction requires free schools to be estab- 
lished by assessment over the whole State, and this provision 
is being carried out with the assent of all parties. The city of 
Eichmond has already appropriated 100,000 dollars for educa- 
tion. The practice is to have separate schools for the negroes. • 
I have been shown a large building in what was not long ago 
the fashionable quarter of the town, and then used as a grand 

c 2 • 



20 RICHMOND. [cii. iii. 

hotel, wliicli lias been purchased for conversion into a free school 
for the negroes, and in magnitude will vie with the splendid free 
schools of New York or Thiladelphia. Seeing that buildings 
have to be provided, and that there are no reserved lands, as in 
the Western States, for the aid of common school education, the 
school-rate in Virginia will be ]>retty high lor some time ; but it 
will be a source of much protit in the end, and will make her 
labour more valuable, and her A\ide domains mure attractive and 
more pleasant to settlers of every class. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Land Question in Virginia. —Estates and Farms for Sale without Pur- 
chasers. — Effects of War and Revolution.— The Annual State Fair. — 
Abundant natural Fertilisers. — New Industries. — Eegularity of the 
Markets for Tobacco and other Agricultural Produce. — Railways. — Desir- 
ableness of Virginia to Middle-class Settlers. 

[Richmond, Ya.—OcI. 26 to Nov. 23.] 
The land question is the absorbing question in Virginia. How 
to get the estates formerly productive again brought into culti- 
vation — how to attract settlers of a superior class from England 
and Scotland, who would take their place in Virginian society as 
landowners and give a fresh impulse to tlie work of improvement 
going on — how to fertilise the soil and increase and improve 
the farm stock — how to turn the woods, the mines, the beds of 
marl, the streams and waterfalls, the fruits and game, and all the 
abundance of nature to productive account, and so fill with new 
blood the wasted frame of the old CommonwealtK^occupies the 
minds of all classes with an intensity of interest to which no 
other public concern can be compared/ Tlie first question asked 
of a stranger is whether he has come to look at land. I was not 
three minutes in Eichmond till a pushing Irishman offered to 
sell me a very fine milch cow and calf on tlie spot, or tell me 
where I could get a nice bit of land on very economical terms. 
But the stranger who is landward-bound is not left to sucli 
chance means of information. /^There are dozens of respectable 
estate -agents, every one of whom has lists of farms and estates 
for sale which he advertises in the newspapers, and offers in fee- 
simple at a rate per acre that in England or Scotland, or even 
Ireland, would be deemed but a moderate annual rent, and pay- 
ment of which he is willing to take in cash just enough to pay 
tlie expenses of suit, with the balance in instalments spread over 
three or four years. Every one of them states in private that 
he has even more lands on his list for sale than he advertises. 
Nor is this all. The State of Virginia has appointed a Board of 
Emigration, composed of gentlemen of the higbest standing and 
reputation, with General Kichardson, the Adjutant-General of 
the State, as secretary, whose sole object is to guidci and assist, 
by every kindly office, persons from abroad wishing to invest a 



22 THE LASH qVESTlUX. [cii. iv. 

little capital and .scttk; on the .soil ol" Viv,L;inia. T ini,Li;lit fill pages 
witli a (l('sciii)liou of lanus and ])lantatinii.s, and lots, large and 
small, of land tliat are thus in tlie market. But I shall only 
niention a lew ]iarticulars from a list i)resented to me hy General 
liiehardson. To show the great variety of choice, as regards 
situation for example, some of these farms and estates are in the 
innnediate neighbouihood of Eichmond, some are in Koxlnidge 
county, some in Orange county, others in Culpeper county, 
Chesterfield county, King William county, Louisa county, 
James City county, Xew Kent county, and so on. One is a 
tohacco plantation in Fluvanna, one of the most famous tobacco 
counties in Virginia. In the county of Orange there is an estate 
of 0,000 acres of inijiroved land, with several dwelling-houses on it, 
the purchaser of which could make a large home-farm I'or himself, 
and have besides half a dozen or even a dozen farm tenants. The 
Luuls are " very fertile, and suited to grass." The purchase-money 
of this estate would be taken in instalments, spread over ten years 
if necessary. There are also many small farms, and lots of 
20 to 50 acres. The highest price asked for any of these lands, 
which are im])roved, is 4/. per acre. One estate of 800 acres, 
" land good, with abundance of greensand marl only four feet 
below the surface," could be bought for fifteen dollars an acre. 
Among the number there are " 2,000 acres of undeveloped coal 
lands." Land rights are carefully registered and guarded in 
A'irginia, and there is seldom any difliculty in tracing a clear 
title back through a long period of years. 

To understand the avalanche of land bargains at present in Vir- 
ginia, one has to remember that before the war the soil Nvas owned 
chielly by slaveholders, who had large estates which they never 
fully cultivated, but on which they shifted their crops about 
from one ])lace to another, and who, finding themselves with 
])lenty of money and little troultle under this system, allowed 
tlicir overseers and the slave-dealers to settle all tlie hard matters 
between them. At the close of the war, when the slaves became 
free, it is easy to perceive that with lu) means left to cultivate 
such large tracts of land under the new conditions, it became a 
neces.-^ity, as well as tlie best thing the owners could do, to sell 
large portions of their estates, and to retain just as much as they 
had ca})ital and labour to cultivate ; and this they have done and 
are doing to some extent. In many other cases, i)roprietors, not 
rich save in land before the war, have since become embarrassed, 
and, falling into debt and arrears of taxes, have had decrees 
passed against them in the court.s, under which sales are ordered 
to proceed. There have been instances also of gentlemen "slain 
in battle," or driven from the country, or ilying from it in despair, 
and of every form of vicissitude and ruin that follows in the 
train of war and social revolution. The consequence is that a 



CH. IV.] STATE OF VIRGINIA. 23 

large proportion of the landed property of a great and long 
settled State is literally going a-hegging for pciople to come and 
take it. The like has seldom been seen before. The deluge of 
encumbered estates in Ireland was nothing comi)ared to it, for 
the land in Ireland, when brought to sale under a l*arliamentary 
title, readily commanded purchasers atf good prices. Yet there 
are no agrarian nmrders in Virginia. Nor is it a new and unde- 
veloped country, where every element of civilization has to be 
introduced, but an old land of renown, wliere law and order pre- 
vail and every social comfort may be enjoyed. There is hartlly 
any part of Virginia where a settler on the soil would not only 
find towns and markets, and roads and railways, but have as his 
neighbours gentlemen who are no mean agriculturists, who are 
versed in all the science of husbandry, many of tlieni breeders 
of the rarest and iinest stock, and deeply indjued with the spirit 
of agricultural progress and improvement. 

The annual State Fair at Kichmond has been held this week. 
This is an institution which is spreading ra})idly in the Southern 
States. I had early note of agricultural fairs at Augusta and 
Atlanta, in Georgia, but found it inipossible to be present. The 
Georgia fairs from all accounts have been most spirited gather- 
ings. Charleston has also its first fair since the war this week, 
which I may be just in time to get a glimpse of. There have 
already been fairs in Lynchburg and I'etersburg, in this State, 
and these now culminate in liichmond. The fairs are competi- 
tive exhibitions of stock, produce, implements, and manufactures, 
where planters, farmers, and engineers meet to comjjare notes, 
and where the young country people of far distant counties come 
to enjoy town-life for a few days, to assist at races and other 
field amusements in the afternoons, to fill the great hotels with 
balls and routs at night, and let all the gay spirit out, as most 
young country people everywhere love to do. The fair at liich- 
mond was held on a large open space that was the Champ de 
Mars of the South in the war times. I was struck by the com- 
pleteness and permanence of the erections ibr this annual 
gathering. The lioyal Societies of England and Scotland them- 
selves cannot vie, in the temporary fabrics of their great peri- 
patetic shows, with the pavilions, committee-rooms, grand stands, 
restaurants, ware-rooms, and stalls for stock, made to last, on the 
fair-fjround at liichmond. A circular racecourse, ibrmed within 
the s(piare outer enclosure, is exactly one mile round. The 
exhibition of stock M^as not very extensive, but it contained 
some superb specimens of Hereford and Durham shorthorns, 
Ayrshire and iJevon cows, and immense i'at bullocks, all native- 
bred. There were many notable fine-wool sheep — South-downs, 
Cotswold lambs, one Cotswold ram (a very fine animal, im- 
ported from Gloucestershire), and Spanish merinocs, whicli are 



24 THE LAND qUESllON. [en. iv. 

a favouiite stock in Virginia. The lueriiioes were from Culpcper 
county. The Ihitish races of sheep and cattle seem to thrive, 
and to be capable of the same high development as at home. 
The large breeds of swine i)robably exceed in size anything seen 
in the old country — Chesters, Pjedfords, and Woburns being pro- 
minent. There was as line a show of light thorough! nod liorses 
as could be seen anywhere, but very few draught animals. I 
saw a grey Norman stallion, that had been im])orted, as large as 
a Clydesdale, but with a longer and smaller body than the barrel- 
like trunk that gives the characteristic aspect of concentrated 
strength and power to that famous breed. There were some 
line mules, and a few donkeys which seemed as large as horses, 
and brayed with corresponding volume. The implements and 
machines formed, perhaps, the most extensive dis[ilay in the 
agricultural department of the Fair, and several steam-engines 
were at work on the ground, including a road-engine, with 
broad wheels, but of the ordinary type, and wanting in the pro- 
perties of the india-rubber tire and other ada])tations for draught 
imd ploughing invented by Mr. Thomson of Leith. A show-room 
contained specimens of the varied manufactures of A^'irginia, and 
a large open shed was devoted to the raw nuiterials and produce 
of the State. In this latter department I saw marls from various 
counties in the tidal region, and from Hanover county, north 
from liichmond ; puddling clay and tine moulding sands ; and 
manganese from the Cabell mine in Nelson county. On the day 
of opening, ]\[r. Jett'erson Davis, who was on his return home 
from Europe to ^Mississippi, appeared on the platform with the 
President and oliice bearers, accompanied by General Early and 
other associates in the war, and delivered a short speech, in which 
he congratulated the Virginians on the reviving prosperity of 
the State, and made passing allusion to former days and circum- 
stances. ;Mr. Davis is an acconi] dished speaker, and expresses 
himself with a nervous force that thrills and rouses his 
audience. No politics were spoken, but it was obvious that 
the people retain a deep respect for their former leaders in the 
Senate and tlie held. The trotting races were a source of great 
attraction, and the A''irginian horses certaiidy display amazing 
j>owers in thi.s line. The light buggies in which they were har- 
nessed Hew round the course like chariots of the sun. There is 
an amusement on these occasions which must be regarded, 1 
suppose, as an outcome of the " chivahy " of the South. It is a 
tournament, wherein young men mounted on fine bloods, and 
dressed in fancy costumes of the olden time, endeavour at full 
gallop to run tlieir lances through iron rings about two inches 
and a half in diameter, suspt'uded from cross-trees jdaced in a 
line at some distance from each other on the field. The gallant 
knight who excels in this achievement has the honour of namintr 



CH. IV.] STATE OF VIRGINIA. 25 

among the fair ladies " the (j)ueen of the Tournament," whom 
he crowns with roses amidst the cheers of the spectators. 

Whatever inroads may be made on tender hearts at these 
Southern fairs, there can be no doubt that they have many 
useful results, and are a manifestation of public spirit of the 
most commendable kind. The agricultural characteristics and 
resources of the various districts are arrayed before the eye till 
they become familiar to all ; and every new invention, dis- 
(5overy, or means of improvement receives a degi-ee of publicity 
and discussion which could not be so effectually attained in any 
other way. The Fair at Eichmond this year is deemed scarcely 
up to the mark of former seasons ; but it was anticipated that a 
great flood which, three weeks ago, swept the banks of the 
James and North liivers, destroying life and property, and 
washing away soil to an extent of which there has been no pre- 
cedent for a hundred years, would interfere most materially with 
the exhibition. " The hand of God," a pious old statesman said 
to me, " has lain heavily on Virginia for some years, and this 
flood is our most recent visitation." It must be regarded as a 
signal proof of the buoyant spirit and substantial resources of 
Virginia that " twenty thousand people," as the local papers 
reckon, should have flocked into Eichmond on this occasion, and 
that so varied and excellent an exhibition of agricultural stock, 
and of the materials and products of industry, should have been 
made. 

Since the discovery of the great marl deposits in South Caro- 
lina keen interest has been excited and eager search made for 
similar treasures in the neighbouring Atlantic States. Virginia 
has shared this excitement, and every year seems to add to her 
discoveries of these native means of fertilisation. There can be 
no doubt that from Acquia Creek in the north-west of the State to 
south of Eichmond, and from Eichmond towards the sea, beds of 
marl are to be found not far from the surface, more or less rich in 
phosphates and annuonia. The marl is of various kinds. There 
are blue marls, white marls, greensand marls, and other sorts, the 
composition of which differs ; but they are all beds of shells and 
Ibssil remains, and by proper treatment and manufacture yield 
phosphates of the higliest utility in fertilising the soil. Along 
the eastern shore numerous banks of half-decomposed oyster 
shells have been found, which, without any manufacture, have 
since the war enabled the agriculturists to dispense with lime. 
The l*iedmont or Granite region, from the less exhausting nature 
of its husbandry, stands in less need of chemical manures than 
the tobacco, cotton, and wheat lands; but in the Great Valley 
limestone everywhere abounds, and there can be no question of 
the ample and convenient means which Virginia possesses for 
the renovation and enrichment of her soil. Necessity is the 



26 THE LAND QUESTION. [cu. iv. 

mother of invention, and not only is this manure-question giving 
rise to promising developments, but new uses are being found for 
materials with whicli the; Avoods and wildest parts of Virginia 
ab )und. The bark of the oak-trees is made in liichmond to 
yield tannin ca])able of prolitabU; exportation to the most distant 
markets. Shumac, worth 70 to 90 dollars per ton, is now produced 
in increasing (quantities from a till lately neglected shrub ; and 
the bark of the black oak of Vii'ginia is ground into quercitron, 
used in Glasgow and elsewhere for dyeing purposes, and fetching 
35 dollars per ton. The reeds of the IJismal and other swamps, 
by a machine which I can only liken to a big gun, are torn into 
rags, and the rind completely separated from the inner pulp, 
which makes excellent paper, — a manufacture of unlimited de- 
mand in the United States. For the great products of A'^irginia 
there are the best of markets. Every pound of tobacco-leaf is 
bought in the Tobacco Exchanges of liichmond and the other 
towns for cash by firms of the most am])le resources, and by 
agents of the French, Austrian, and other Continental Govern- 
ments, as soon as sent in. The Corn Exchanges of the various 
towns are conducted with similar regularity, and there is an 
advantage to the wheat of Virginia in being so near the seaboard 
that it gains in cheapness of transit what it loses in yield as 
conipared with new and more productive soils. The farmer in 
the virgin lands of the Far AVest has to produce two bushels of 
wheat to carry one to the consumer. The minor farm products 
of Virginia find ready sale in all the principal towns, at prices 
which the inhabitants of even a European city would consider 
high. Thus, in Petersburg, I find eggs 18 to 20 cents a dozen; 
butter, 35 to 40 cents per lb. ; chickens, 25 to 35 cents each, 
wholesale prices. Fruit of every kind in Virginia is produced 
in larger quantities than can be consumed on the spot, but is 
preserved in various foiins and sent abroad, and, raw, is daily 
bought and sold in the domestic markets. It seems only a 
nightmare, or some hideous misunderstanding, or unaccountable 
cai)rice of evil fortune, that can retard the progress of Virginia to 
prosperity and wealth greater and more substantial than she has 
known at any former period. 

The following figures show the crops of tobacco in the four 
years before and four years after the war : — 





Hlul.<i. 




nhds. 


1856-7 . . 


. . 52,909 


1866-7 . . 


. . 43,717 


1857-8 . . 


. . 72,720 


1867-8 . . 


. . 47,211 


1858-9 . . 


. . 68,593 


1868-9 . . 


. . 47,400 


1859-60 . . 


. . 76,950 


1869,70 . . 


. . 33,721 



The average value of this produce would be about 150 dollars 
currency ])er hhd. Last year's crop was exceptionally small, but 
Avill be made up this year, which has been very favourable to the 



en. IV.] STATE OF VIRGINIA. iJ7 

jjlant, as regards botli quantity and quality. It is estimated on 
the Tobacco Exchanges that from 5(),0U0 to GU,UUU hhds. of 
superior Virginian will be sent into market before next year's 
crop. Virginia devotes about 120,000 acres to tobacco. Her 
crop of cotton before the war was only from 10,000 ,to 12,000 
bales of 400 lbs., though a large quantity passes through her port 
of Norfolk from other Statesy'Jt is in her wheat crop that the 
effect of so many uncultivated farms, and the diminution of her 
agricultural production, is most plainly seen. In 1800 she pro- 
duced 13,130,977 bushels of wheat. In 1868 her crop of wheat 
only amounted to 6,914,000 bushels. In Indifujr corn and other 
cereals the lost ground is equally conspicuous^^ 

The State is well intersected by the great through lines of 
railway, both south and west, and the formation of cheap 
branches in the interior will now doubtless be a main object. 
But attention is chiefly directed in the meantime to the comple- 
tion of the connections betwixt the spacious harbour of Norlblk, 
on the Atlantic seaboard, and the Western and Pacitic routes, 
so as to place Virginia direct on the higlnvay of future com- 
merce. 

People who desire to change the Old World for the New, and 
to acquire either small or large farms without great change of 
circumstance, may do so more easily in Virginia than probably 
in any other part of the United States. Tor emigrants of a 
superior class, with a moderate capital to invest in land, Virginia 
has peculiar attractions. Englishmen and Scotchmen will find 
here Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Independent Churches, and 
a well-organized and agreeable society. They will find a popu- 
lation scarcely distinguishable from their own countrymen in 
anything — a population proud, indeed, of their State and of 
themselves, but still prouder of their mother-land, and equally 
proud to welcome and hold out the hand to all w^orthy of the 
mother-land wdio may come to settle among them. 



CHArTER Y. 

The Piiio Forests of Nortli I'jiiolina.- Kxteiuled (^iiUivation of Cutton. — Pay- 
ment of Nejfroes by Shares in tlie Cro\). Small coiiiiiarative Cost of Kail- 
ways. The I'ort of Wilniiuiiton. — Exports of North Carolina since tho 
^Var. Partial conipensation of lower prices hy hijjher Kxehan;,fe Valne of 
the l>ollar. ^^'iln^m;iton, Charlotte, andKutherford Kailway. (.Jovernor 
1 [olden vcrattn the White People. — Great increase of Negroes in Wihuiiig- 
toi). — Ivute of ^^'ages. 

[GOLDSBOUO' — Noi'. no. WlLMlNUTON — NoV. 7-9.] 

TiiK sun was just risin^^ as the railway train, on my way south- 
ward t'roni roiorsbiu'L!;, ]ilungc(l into the depths of the great pine 
forests of North Carolina. The scene by this time was not quite 
new to me. The Atlantic slope southward from Xew Jersey 
through Pennsylvania and N'irginia to this ])oint, so far, has all 
nnu'h the same natural features, but Pennsylvania is more 
cleared of wood, though (what I saw of it) not much better 
cultivated than Virginia, and the woods of Virginia have more 
variety than the forests of almost pure pine which flourish in 
North Carolina. The rising sun, as seen through these dense 
thickets, suffuses a vast golden radiance from a binnished centre, 
on whith the eye can look steadily, and trace from background 
to foreground, and on tiiis side and that, the lines of light with 
which it pierces the glades, brightens the leaves, and ])lays 
round the dark trunks of the forest. It is as if all the distant 
outer edge of the wood were on lire, M'ithout smoke, or noise, or 
ilame — aglow, sim]>ly, with irresistible, advancing, autl spreailing 
iire. P>ut as the cars sweep on, the tall junes begin to whirl 
round in an endless dance, and the golden radiance seems to 
move through the wood with the speed of lightning, till the eye 
grows weary, and the brain, overtasked, anil itself ablaze with 
the iire of imagination, becomes dizzy. One is glad to fall back 
on the seats for relief, but again and again leans forward to 
ga/e anew on the glorious scene. The pines, which, as far as 
1 can estimate, grow to a height of 70 to StI feet, are bare a>ul 
straight as the masts of a sliij), with only a small cupt>la of 
branches and leiives at the top. It seems as if the very thick- 
ness with which they spring up ])recludes any other develop- 
meut. They crowd and jostle one another into nakedness, lu 



nil. v.] STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 2!) 

ilio fiorco contest to o'o ahead, the lower hranehes, " eahined and 
(■oufincd," and choked to deatli, I'all oCI' till nothintf hut th(> haro 
stem with its hood of Iblian'o remains. The very hrushwood 
cannot live amidst the aflluenee and mastery of the pine in the 
Carolinian forests. Long as the woods of North Carolina have 
yielded enormous (|[uantities of tur])entinG and naval stores to 
tlie world, it proves the inexhaustil)ility of the sources of these 
valuable products, that I nnist liave travelled fifty or sixty 
miles through forest scenery without setung a single tree that 
had been tn])ped for oil. It is only in the interior, and as one 
approaches nearer the port of Wilmington, that the manufacture 
of "naval stores" hcuiomes visible in incised trees and turpentine 
distilleries. 

Yet the hand of man has long been busy over all these north- 
eastern tracts of North C'arolina. There are numerous chnirings 
in the woods under cultivation, and farms and ]»laiitat ions, which 
yield Indian corn in abundance, aiul always cotton more or less 
successfully. Many of the cotton-fields, indeed, show but an 
inhirior growth, but others in their immediate vicinity are flourish- 
ing, even luxuriant. In some instances the heads only of the negro 
pickers were seen above the tops of the plant, while in others, no 
doubt the majority, the ])lant was not more than a foot and a 
half or two feet high, with considei'able portions of the fields 
here and there showing either a total failure or a partial extinc- 
tion of the culture by overgrowth of grass and weeds. The best 
crops arc usually found in the neighbourhood of the dwelling- 
houses of the larger plantations and of the villages, and are the 
result obviously of niiuuiring and more caniful handling. The 
negroes and other small cidtivaf,ors have settled on many of the 
clearings in the forest, and have not yet the art or the means 
cither of growing or pickinff their cotton well. Yet one could 
not but observe the abundance of bolls on fields where the 
plants were smallest. An English pasture, covered with white 
daisies, is the closest simih; which can be given of the aspect of 
many of these cotton patches. Tlu; picking was not mon^ n]-> to 
the mark than the pridiminnry culture, and, generally sp(\aking, 
was most advanced wlusre the cotton ])lant was largest and most 
carefully cultivated. I must remark, at the same time, that 
several negro lots have come under my observation which are 
little modcds of industry and improvement, from the cottage 
outward. The dwellings in this part of North Carolina are for 
the most part very ])oor— mere woodiin shanties, without paint, 
or any other mark of condbrt or substance. But this is by no 
means the universal character of the country. The railways 
pass through the poorest districts lying between important 
l)oints of traffic, and it is only by getting away from the tracks 
of the cars and behind the woods that one discovers all the rural 



30 G01DSB0R0\ [ch. v. 

development. There arc ni;my lar^fe plautors in tliis rot,non, wlio 
grow spacions breadths of cotton, and send as well-pressed 
iron-tied bales to market as are to be seen anywhere. The 
extent of cotton cultnre in North Carolina, and the fervour and 
enori,'y with which it is prosecuted, are nnich greater, indeed, 
than one expects to lind so near the northern- limit of thc^ Cotton 
Belt. The area M'itliin wliich cotton is grown in North Carolina 
may be defined by linos drawn from Norlhani})ton county on the 
northern frontier, eastward through Halifax and Martin counties 
to I'andico Sound, south-westward through Halifax, Nash, and 
Johnston counties, and thence direct westward as far as Meck- 
lenl)urg county, which is said to bo one of the best cotton dis- 
tricts ill the State. 

An extension of the area of cotton culture is not at the 
moment a question of supreme importance as regards either the 
Southern States or an ample supply of the staple to the factories 
of Europe. The area may be extended without materially in- 
creasing the aggregate produce, and the question of the time 
appears to be how, by skilful culture and the application of 
manures, the same area may be made to yield a larger crop. It 
is to this object that the attention of growers in the South ap- 
pears to be mainly addressed. Yet it is the opinion of persons 
of experience here that in North Carolina there is probably 
20 per cent, greater breadth of cotton this year than last, 
though doubts are expressed whether the increase of produce 
will be in ])roportion. The weather, however, is fovourable 
beyond ex])ectation for the utmost yield of the cotton ])lant. 
The (liHiculty so far north is the shortness of the season, but up 
to this date there has not been a nip of frost ; the days are as 
warm as in July in England, the nights clear and pleasant, and 
there has been neither rain nor storm to retard the labour or 
destroy the liopes of the planter. AVith such weather, there is 
no reason wliy cotton should not turn out as well for the grower, 
even in North Carolina, as any crop that could be cultivated. 
Since long before the war this State has suffered from emigration 
to the richer cotton lands of the South, and this is one of the 
social dilliculties arising from the very superabundance of 
natural resources in America which it is hard to overcome. 
Some say that for every native in the State there are two 
strangers, and ask how any proper consolidation of society or 
stable industrial progress is possible in such circumstances ? 
But an extended cultivation of cotton is at least not a bad 
symptom in the meantime. The testimony borne of the negroes 
by candid and sui)stantial |K^ople is that, Avhik^ they do not 
ahord the supply of .steady laliour necessary, and there is room 
ft)r more of them, or of more eflicient labourers, they are doing 
much better than was expected before emaneipation. They are 



en. v.] STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 31 

paid on the cotton farms in some instances by wages, and in others 
by a share of the proikice, the relative merits of wliicli modes of 
remuneration are likely to become an important practical question 
in the Southern States. The acknowledged disadvantage of the 
latter mode is the uncertainty and inequality of tlie return for 
labour. The negroes on the share system, for example, had a 
larger remuneration last year, when the price of cotton was liigh, 
than they will have this year, when it has suffered a heavy de- 
cline. Can the negro be expected to understand or be satisfied 
with this fluctuating scale of remuneration for his toil ? Is it 
desirable that he should be dragged, at his present stage of pro- 
gress, into all the ups and downs of cotton speculation ? Is he 
likely to comprehend that, while doing liis l)est probably in both 
years, he should have less this year than last, because France 
and Prussia have gone to war ? And if he cannot comprehend 
this, is there not a danger that he may be discontented, and 
think himself the victim of some fraud or injustice nearer 
home ? 

Railways generally are — or, if not, ought to be — made at 
very little cost in this part of the world. On my way to Wil- 
mington, I have remarked about forty miles over which the rails 
pass in as straight a line as could be drawn mathematically, on 
ground almost as level as a bowling-green, and with only the 
fine, light, marUy soil of the Atlantic slope to cut through. Not 
a rock, scarce a creek or stream, or marsh, in all this long dis- 
tance. The American engineers have usually carried their lines 
along the ridge of the country to be traversed, and hence the few 
bridges, and the forest land with which the traveller in America 
becomes so familiar. On looking down on the track — for which, 
by the way, the construction of the cars, allowing free passage at 
all times from one end of the train to the other, affords peculiar 
facility — one sees for the most part a simple narrow clearing 
through the forest, a certain amount of spade and barrow work, 
with embankments here and there only a few feet deep ; ribs of 
timber, or " railway sleepers," laid across ; and then, longitu- 
dinally, the iron rails, bound together by bolts, without the 
" chairs " and jointings which the heavy traffic on British rail- 
ways renders necessary. Two light trains a day, with probably 
one freight train in the same period, form the general average of 
traffic, and can be conducted safely without the elaborate expen- 
diture on " way " and " maintenance of way " in other circum- 
stances indispensable. The railways IierealDouts have numerous 
stations, which are simply landing-places, without buildings of 
any kind, for letting down passengers to farms and little centres 
of population in the neighbourhood; and they have also 
" depots " where there may be a little town or not, but where 
there are great amounts of produce to be " shipped," and 



32 WILMINGTON. [en. v. 

where the companies erect sheds and provide every structural 
convenience necessary to the trallic. The main outlay of 
American railways, however, away from tlie <;rcat cities, is the 
iron rail. The timher is got on either hand in ahundance at 
every step of the road, and the projjrietors of the lands are so 
eager to have railway communication that they not only open 
their woods, hut give tens of thousands of acres along the track 
for ever to the companies. The earthworks, and all into which 
lahour on tlu> spot enters, have to bear, indeed, the great inflation 
of prices which dates from the war, and which renders the 
monetary cost nearly double what it was before. But the iron 
rails are the most formidaljle difliculty. 

AV'ilmington is the only shipping port of any magnitude in 
North Carolina. The railway system of the State, converging at 
Goldslxu'o', has been extended to Beaufort, about 100 miles 
north of Wilmington, M'here there is said to be deeper water, 
and other advantages, and which is expected to compete with 
Wilmington for the export and import trade. But the results 
hitherto have not been equal to the most sober expectations. It 
is always a ditficult and tardy process to divert trade from an 
established channel. Wilmington, like all the old Atlantic ports, 
has gi'eat depth of water u[) to its warehouses. It was the chief 
port for blockade-runners during the war, and the success with 
which that trade was conducted in the face of the Federal 
cruisers is adduced as a proof of the safety and convenience of 
the harbourage and its outlets. The stormy dangers of Cape 
Ifatteras, which increase the rate of insurance at New York, may 
be a drawback in the coasting trade betwixt Wilmington and 
seaports to the north, but not betwixt Wilmington and any 
port south of North Carolina, while they can hardly affect, in 
any degree, the direct trade of Wilmington with Europe. The 
cotton steam-press here was destro3'(*il in the Avar, and has 
not yet been replaced. There is a great number of intelligent, 
energetic, and honourable men of business in Wilmington, in- 
chuling a few prominent Northern men, who have made money 
in North Carolina, are imbued with an earnest desire to develop 
the prosperity of the State, and will not readily allow the trade 
of the port to dwindle. 

The ex])orts of North Carolina, of which the great bulk passes 
through Wilmington, have lieen steadily on the increase since the 
close of the war. With the exce])tion of IStKJ, the first year of 
peace, when a considerable quantity of produce stored uj) during 
the blockade found outlet, and when the export of cotton 
amounted to 04,000 bales, the cotton exported annually has been 
,"iS,000 bales till the past season, in which it has increased to 
.^)7,Hr)r) bales. Th(> ])ro(luction of cotton in a State can sehlom be 
iiderred from the exports of its own harbours, owing to the 



en. v.] STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 33 

divers linos of transit by which cotton finds its way to market, 
and Nortli Carolina itself is not an exception to the general rule 
in this respect, since some of its cotton, with much more from 
farther South, goes to Norfolk in Virginia, and some to Charleston 
in South Carolina. ]>ut North Carolina exports hardly any cotton 
which is not the produce of its own soil, and the rapid increase 
of export during the past year shows a largely extended internal 
production. The average price of cotton realized in North and 
South Carolina in the four years after the war was 282 cents per 
lb., while in 1869-70 it was but 22^- cents per lb., and has since 
been still further reduced. But it is worthy of observation, that 
while the average value of the dollar, in the four years succeed- 
ing the war, was 6'49 to the pound sterling, during 1809-70 it 
has been as high as 5"70 to the ])Ound sterling. This difference 
may not be immediately felt by the grower under the roundabout 
style of business and the elaborate frustration of economic prin- 
ciples prevailing in the United States, but it shows that a fall of 
the currency price of cotton is not exactly equivalent to a fall 
of value, and that, under any moderate approach to free trade, 
and a fair rating of goods and materials of every kind, the possi- 
bilities of American production of cotton and other staples, 
with a handsome profit to the producer, would be immensely 
increased. The exports of spirit of turpentine from North 
Carolina in 1866 wore 57,000 casks, in 1867 they rose to 89,000 
casks, in 1868 to 96,000, and last year to 120,000 casks. In 
1870 the same ratio of increase will not bo shown. The pro- 
duction has not been so great as in 1869. The benzoin spirit 
distilled from petroleum is interfering with the demand for spirit 
of turpentine, and the increased labour and energy thrown into 
the production of cotton naturally marks a diminished attention 
to the industry of the forests. The price of the spirit of tur- 
pentine has fallen since the war from 25 dollars to 15 dollars per 
cask, and crude has declined in equal proportion. Yet, what 
with the increased quantity produced, and the higher value of 
American currency, North Carolina has been receiving annually 
an almost uniform sum in pounds sterling for her turpentine and 
other naval stores. The export of rosin has increased from 
343,451 barrels in 1866 to 544,498 barrels in 1869. The price 
has dropped in the same period from 5 to 2^ dollars per barrel, 
but the dollar is worth in British money from 15 to 18 ])er cent, 
more than in 1866. The export of lumber of all kinds has been 
well maintained year after year since the close of the war, and 
though at slightly reduced rates, has of late been increased ; so 
that, with the extended cultivation of cotton and other marks of 
reviving agriculture, the gradual recuperation of North Carolina 
seems beyond question. 

Wilmington is striving in various ways to develop the resources 

D 



:}4 WILMINGTON. [cii. v. 

ot" the State and to iiupnjve its own position as the i)ort of ship- 
nu'nt. Chief among the objects anxiously promoted by its 
leading men is the completion of the Wilmington, Charlotte, and 
Kutherford liailroad. There are 170 miles of this line in opera- 
tion, but a considerable extension is still necessary to render the 
projected communication complete. Along the southern border 
of North Carolina there are several well-settled and productive 
counties which have no railway communication with the coast, 
and the object of the promoters of the railway is to open up 
these counties and to form a connection with the Tennessee line 
and the great thoroughfares to the South and West. I'he leading 
ports on the Atlantic seal»oard have all a lively ambition to get 
into direct railway conunuuication with the Western States and 
the route to the I'acitic. This appears to them to be the great 
highway of future connnerce, while at the same time tlie exten- 
sion of their lines westward meanwhile serves most important 
local objects. There is little reason to doubt that, by means of 
direct railway communication with Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, 
and Illinois, Wilmington as well as other Southern seaports 
would command a share of the Western traffic with Europe, at 
present carried by a longer route to New York, Philadelphia, 
and Baltimore. New York more especially, by its great concen- 
tration of capital and means of communication, and the keen- 
ness, not to say unscrupulousness, with which the latter are 
worked in its favour, overshadows and overlays as with an in- 
cubus the natural and regular development of the Southern sea- 
}>orts, and introduces some very uneconomic elements into the 
trade of the South and West with Europe. Whether this want 
of balance can be corrected remains to be seen, but, at all events, 
there is every propriety in North Carolina seeking to have the 
moans of carrying her own produce quickly and cheaply to the 
seaboard. The counties yet to be penetrated by the Wilmington 
and Jiutherford line are rich in agricultural and mineral resources. 
JMecklenburg, one of the number, has long been among the fore- 
most cotton-growing counties in the State. The whole district 
is largely peopled by thrifty and iiulustrious Scotch settlers 
of long standing. On being shown the bf)ok of a cotton factor 
here, 1 found, \\\t\\ some surprise, that fully one-half of his con- 
signers were " Macs." Many of the planters of North Carolina 
send down their cotton to Wilmington, bale by bale as they 
gather it, under llea^y charges of transit, which, in a state of 
declining prices, may one day turn the scale against production. 
As it is, there is much grund)ling this season. The growers say 
that 15 cents per lb. at the gin is the lowest price at whicli 
they can ])roduce cotton, as 15 cents go at present in the I'nited 
Slates. The cheapest access to market is thus of the most vital 
importance. Yet the promoters of the Wilmington and Euthcr- 



CH. v.] STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA. 35 

ford Railroad, notwithstanding all the outlay and substantial 
progress they have made, are met by great difficulty. Three 
years ago they were authorized by their charter to borrow 
2,500,000 dollars on iirst mortgage bonds, than which there is no 
better security ; but there would seem to be little hope of getting 
the money on this Continent unless the company sell its bonds at 
50 for 100 at 8 per cent, interest, or, in other words, borrow at 
16 per cent, and pay at last in principal 100 for every 50 bor- 
rowed ! New York, which is the chief centre of these financial 
operations, has probably no great disposition to promote railways 
which threaten in some degree its own imperial monopoly, or it 
may not have funds enough for all the projects of this kind 
urged on its attention ; but such things might surely somehow 
be better and more easily accomplished. 

The waut of confidence betwixt the white people of North 
Carolina and the State Government that followed upon the 
war continues to prevail, though in a limited and subsiding 
degree. Notwithstanding the test oath, by which persons who 
took part in the war are excluded from office, the negro mass 
vote, and the high-handed measures of the party in power, the 
white population of the State are gradually acquiring inducnce, 
and have made considerable gains in the elections this autumn. 
The Governor, Holden, has weakened rather than strengthened 
his influence by a cry which he raised, in a case of supposed 
murder, against Ku-Klux conspiracy and outrage in the State, 
and the military and other measures he adopted on the occasion. 
The fact that a murder had been committed might be clear 
enough, but that a secret confederacy existed among the white 
people for purposes of violence was denounced as an invention 
of the Governor to agitate the negroes, and to keep them banded 
on his side in the elections. The case at all events broke com- 
pletely down on inquiry, and the parties arraigned right and 
left on a charge of complicity were discharged by the Eadical 
judges. Governor Holden is not a " carpet-bagger." He is 
what is called here a " scallowag," or what in the amenities of 
electioneering parlance in England would be termed " turn- 
coat." He is said to have been more fiercely Confederate than 
the Confederates themselves during the war, but upon the surren- 
der to have turned round, and, placing himself at the head of 
the negToes, secured his pre-eminence.^ The fierce passions 
excited betwixt North and South by the war are kept alive by 
the system of rule which has almost inevitably followed, but 
there are symptoms that bitter feelings and inane resentments 
will gradually give way. A Northern man of business readily 

^ Governor Holden, since the above was written, has been impeached, found 
guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours against the State and the liberties ot 
the citizens, and expelled from office. 

D 2 



36 WILMINOTON. [en. v. 

attains the position due to him among his fellow-citizens in tlie 
South. Mr. Silas Martin, the present IMayor of Wilmincjton, 
though a Northerner, was freely elected to his office, and is held 
in deserved respect by all classes of the population for his 
business qualities and standing, and the zeal and probity with 
which he promotes tlie interests of the port and of the State. 

The white and coloiu'ed population of North Carolina are 
nearly equal in number. Here in Wilmington the negroes are 
in a large majority, the census of this year having brought out 
the following results : — 

White males 2,697 

White females 2,832 

Total whites .... 5,529 

Coloured males 3,446 

Coloured females 4,455 

Total coloured . . . 7,901 

Foreign males 348 

Foreign females 200 

Total foreign . . . 548 

Total population of Wilmington . . 13,978 

This is an increase of fully 4,000 since the previous census, 
which is remarkable, considering the vicissitudes throu"h which 
the town has passed in these ten years, and is indicative, not 
only from the large majority of negroes, but the large excess of 
coloured females over coloured males, of the tendency of the 
negro, since emancipation, to desert the country for the town, 
and to do so in a loose and vagrant fashion. Society cannot be 
in the most healthy condition where the coloured females are 
four to three coloured males. But there is abundance of employ- 
ment most part of the year in "Wilmington for all the able-bodied 
negroes willing to work. The rate of wages paid them for com- 
mon labour is from 1 to 1'25 dollars a day, and for whitewashing, 
bricklaying, and labour more or less skilled to which negroes 
have been trained, as high as from 2-50 to 3 dollars a day. 



CHAPTER VI. 

City of Charleston— Its Ruin in the War — Marks of gradual Restoration. — 
The Battery. — Great Fire of 1862. — Charleston account of the Losses of 
the Southern States.— Loud Complaints of Misgovernmeut and Fmancial 
Jobbery. — Majority of Negroes in the Legislature. — Atmosphere of Poli- 
tical Suspicion. — Efforts of the Whites to regain a share of Representa- 
tion. — The Reform Union. 

[Charleston, S.C. — Nov. 10 to Nov. 14] 

Charleston — " old Charleston," fondly so called by its citizens 
— tliat has braved " the battle and the breeze," if not a 
thousand, a good hundred years — the centre of Carolinian trade 
and commerce, the centre always of strong political emotion, 
and the centre also where the negro element was densest and 
negro slavery was intrenched as in a stronghold alike by fear- 
and interest — is getting, slowly but surely, on its legs again 
from the downfall inflicted by the war. Never had a completer 
ruin fallen upou any city than fell upon Charleston in the years 
from 1860 to 1865. Her planters, who, with noble country 
seats on the banks of pleasant streams, amid groves of live oaks 
affording deep shade from the summer sun, could afford to have 
their winter residences here in town, were reduced, as by the 
grinding of a nether millstone, from affluence to poverty — her 
merchants were scattered to the four winds of heaven— her 
shopkeepers closed their doors, or contrived to support a pre- 
carious existence on contraband of war — her young men w^ent 
to die on the battlefield or in the military prisons of the Noith 
— her women and children, who could, fled to the country. The 
Federal Government, mindful of Fort Sumter and the first 
indignity to the Union flag, kept Charleston under close block- 
ade, and added to its miseries by occasional bombardments. 
^^^len this process in five years had reached the last stage of 
exhaustion, and the military surrender gave practical effect to 
emancipation, the negroes in the country parts, following up the 
child-like instinct of former days that Charleston was the El 
Dorado of the world, flocked into the ruined town, and made its 
aspect of misery and desolation more complete. The streets 
were empty of all but themselves ; the houses had not only 



38 ' CHARLESTOX. [ch. vi. 

lost all their bright ])aint without, but were mostly tenautless 
within ; many fine mansions, long deserted, were fast mouldering 
into decay and ruin ; and the demand for labour and the supply 
of provisions were at the lowest point. Seldom, with a deeper 
ruin of the old, has there been a more hopeless chaos out of 
which to construct a new order of things than Cliarleston pre- 
sented in those days. Yet the process of amelioration has 
year by year been going steadily forward. Many of the old 
merchants of the city, and many active agents of exchange, 
botli new and old, have come to put the wheels of trade once 
more in motion. Some of the old planters have also survived, 
and are seen, thougli in diminished numbers and with saddened 
countenances, yet with the steady fire of Anglo-Saxon courage 
in their eyes, attending to att'airs like men determined to con- 
quer fortune even in the depths of ruin and on the brink of the 
grave ; while others, not so much to be respected, unwillmg to 
work and ashamed to beg, seek to maintain some remnant of the 
ancient dignity no one knows how. The quays and wharves 
are busy; new ones, to meet new branches of trade, have been 
built with files of counting-rooms to suit ; the cotton presses are 
again at work ; lorries laden with the staple products of the 
interior pour the livelong day along the streets towards the 
river ; revival is extending from the business parts of the town 
to the quiet quarters of private residence ; and the hotels, always 
of the first consideration in America, are already, with their 
stately colonnades of white pillars, their freshly painted fronts, 
and their troops of polished waiters of various hues of ebony, 
magnificent in Charleston. I went down one evening to the 
Battery, an esplanade at the seaward end of the peninsula, 
formed by the Cooper and Ashley Elvers, on which Cliarleston is 
built — not of great compass, seeing that the embouchure of tlie 
two rivers here draws the land to a narrow point, but beautiful 
and refreshing, looking out on the spacious bay direct to Fort 
Sumter and the far Atlantic, and calling up associations of the 
Spanish Main and the West Indies, the distant British Islands, 
and of naval and historic gloiy, at the crowding thoughts 
of which tlie heart of every English-speaking man leaps to his 
mouth. Though Charleston, like other cities, has its "West-End 
— as 1 have seen from the tower of the Orphan Asylum, a noble 
institution which the war has left in full vigour — where goodly 
houses along stretching avenues of trees, and ample garden 
grounds, afford a happy and elegant retreat to prosperous men 
of business, yet there is reason enough why the Battery shoidd 
be a point of peculiar eminence and fashion in Cliarleston. The 
residences round the es])lanade — ])alaces in their way — after long 
neglect, are undergoing rapid renovation. I. am told that, apart 
iVom the "nabobs" who live in these charming marine villas, the 



cii. VI. J STATE OF SOUTH CAliOLINJ. 39 

])atteiy in ante-war times was the resort every evening of a long- 
array of carriages, in which fair ladies reclined, and happy 
gentlemen cooled themselves after the heat an.d toil of the day. 
The only equipage I sav/ was the handsome buggy of a dry-goods 
man from the North, who is rather liked for the spirit he dis- 
plays. But the ladies of Charleston meantime take a constitu- 
tional walk on the Battery with their babies and nurses, and the 
gentlemen say the carriages will come again in due time. 

Such is the hopeful uprising of commercial progress in 
Charleston just now. But the old town has much to recover. 
In the winter of 1862 a calamity more destructive and terrible 
than all the Federal bombardments befell the devoted city. A 
fire broke out in some negro shanty on the Cooper River, and, 
favoured by the wind, spread and swept down all before it in a 
curious zigzag but generally straight line through the centre of 
the town, till stopped by the Ashley Eiver on the other side. 
This appalling conflagration, the desolation and misery cuased 
and the hospitality evoked by which, amidst all the troubles of 
the w^ar, cannot be described, still leaves its mark, like the 
course of a caterpillar that has eaten its way over a cotton 
leaf, upon the city of Charleston. Fires, once sprung, must 
propagate here with fearful rapidity. A large proportion of the 
side streets of Charleston are built of wood. The houses are 
simply frame erections. They are all dry as tinder, and airy as 
they can be made. An accidental spark or flame which in our 
British towns would be instantly smothered by the damp atmo- 
sphere, the stone walls, the dense fogs, and the absence of sun 
and ventilation, is here fraught sometimes with alarming conse- 
quences. Not the slightest suspicion of incendiarism rested upon 
the great Charleston fire of 1862. The negro is not given to the 
folly of setting his house on fire to roast an egg for somebody 
else to eat ; and such is the power of discipline and habit over 
him, that he continues, save on election nights or other periods 
of great excitement, to turn into bed at the early hour in the 
evening prescribed to him by a sort of curfew law in the days of 
slavery. The question asked when one surveys the vast ruin 
caused by this fire is, What became of the insurance companies ? 
The insurance companies of the South ? The war soon rendered 
their position untenable. The number of persons caring to 
insure rapicUy diminished, and as the destruction of fire and 
sword spread wider and wider, the companies went down by the 
board, till the whole insurance capital of the Southern States, 
and all the interests centred round it, shrivelled up like a scroll 
and disappeared. One must go to Charleston in order to hear all 
the ruin of the war summed up in good round emphatic English. 
Any old merchant citizen will reckon on his fingers what the war 
lost of property, capital, and substance of every kind to the South. 



40 CHARLESTON. [ch. vi. 

rirst, the proi)eity in negroes, whicli, whether property iu right 
reason and natural ecjuity or not, was introduced under the sway 
of Eughuid, was recognised by the Constitution of the Republic, 
Mas ])roteeted Ijy the hiws of tlie United States, and was to all 
material intents and purposes as essentially property in the South 
as anything elsewhere which makes profit and can be bought and 
sold; — this ])roperty was abolished, and was four hundred millions 
steiling. The whole banking capital of the South, which can- 
not be estimated at less than two hundred millions more, was 
swamped in the extinction of all i)rofitable banking business, 
and, finally, in a residuary Hood of worthless Confederate money. 
The whole insurance ca[)ital of the South — prolialjly a hundred 
millions more — also perished. The well-organized cotton, sugar, 
and toljacco plantations, mills, factories, coal and iron mines, and 
commercial and industrial establishments, built up by private 
capital, the value of which in millions of pounds sterling cannot 
be computed — all sank and were engulfed in the same wave. 
Every form of mortgage claim, with the exception of two or 
three proud State stocks, shared for the time being the fate of 
the principal, and only now crops up amidst the subsiding 
deluge like the stumps of a submerged forest. And so on the 
account goes as long as the fingers hold out, till the demonstra- 
tion made is that the South by the war was peeled to the bone, 
and left not only without a cent in its pocket, but without any- 
thing by which a cent could be made, save the rude but produc- 
tive land and the bright sun, powerful indeed as natural germs 
of wealth and prosperity, but needing, to give them vitality, 
more capital and labour, more invention and ingenuity, more of 
everything which it seemed most dilHcult to supply.^ Terrible 
though the picture of ruin and impoverishment be, as thus 

* The census returns of the total value of the taxable property of many of 
the States have been published since my visit. The basis may not be a very 
accurate one, but is doubtless an api)i'oximation to accuracy. Referrinj^to 
the figures, the total valuation of Florida has dcclinfd from §GS,i)29,(J85 in 
18(50 to §31,167,4(54 in 1870; Georgia, from §()18,2:}2,387 in 1860 to 
$202,063,557 in 1870; Louisiana, from $435,787,265 in 18(;0 to 8250,588,510 
in 1870; while in Mississippi the decrease has been from §509,427,912 in 
1860 to $154,635,527 last year. South Carolina has not suffered as {freat 
a depreciation as some other States, the returns placing her present valuation 
at .§174,409,491 against §489,319,128 in 18(50. The valuation of Virginia 
and West Virginia in 1870 was §480,800,267 against §657,021,336 ten years 
ago. Kentucky appears to be recuperating, her valuation in 1870 being 
8423,776,099 against §528,212,693. The imi)overishment of the South has 
told materially on the total taxable property of the Union. This value 
incrciused betwixt 1850 and 1860 from ;£l,200,000,0(K) to £2.100,000,000, or 
75 per cent. The increase in the last ten yeai"s has been only 25 i)er cent., 
or about £500,000,000. The country, on the other hand, now owes a National 
Jlebt, without reckoning State and City debts, of an amount nearly equal to 
what appears to be the whole increase of taxable jn-operty in ten years. 



CH. VI.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 41 

(Ivuwn here in Charleston, I suspect it is in the main true of 
the whole South, and the marvel must be that affairs should 
already be so lively, so hopeful and elastic, as they eveiywhero 
appear. It was to be expected that the young men would enter 
upon business with fresh life and energy; but more reniarkable 
than they are the men of advanced life who, still on the top of 
the M'ave, are guiding and controlling by their experience the 
new order of things. 

Charleston, like Boston — for a good comparison there is 
nothing like the antipodes — has an English look about it. The 
old city has not fallen so mathematically into the parallelo- 
graiA formation as the cities of the United States in general. 
Tiie inhabitants still cast many a fond look towards the old 
country, and contrast the present misrule with the time when 
the laws of England were the laws of South Carolina. Such is 
the deep sense of change and revolution produced by the down- 
fall of State Eights and the inroad of Federal power and innova- 
tion, that they profess not to know what the laws of South 
Carolina now are, or whether she has any laws at all. Ask 
what the system of rule is, and the reply will uniformly be that 
it is " nigger rule," which is in one sense true. The negroes are 
more numerous than the whites in South Carolina. Being all 
citizens of the United States, they have all the right of voting, 
while many of the whites are not naturalized ; and the War 
Radicals who came in to take the lead in political affairs, and to 
hold offices for which the prominent men of the State were dis- 
qualified by the test oath, have succeeded in controlling the 
negro vote, and casting it almost en masse in their favour at the 
polls. There not being " carpet-baggers" or " scallowags" enough 
in the State to fill all the seats in the Legislature, the negroes 
have largely returned men of their own race to watch over " laws 
and learning," and " ships, colonies, and commerce," at the 
Capitol. The House of Eepresentatives consists of 80 coloured 
men and 44 whites, and the Senate of 11 coloured men and 20 
whites — there being one seat vacant just now. The white people 
of South Carolina are thus practically disfranchised, and a pro- 
letariat Parliament has been constituted, the like of which could 
not be produced under the widest suffrage in any part of the 
world save in some of these Southern States. The outcry of 
misgovernment, extravagant expenditure, jobbery, and corrup- 
tion is both loud and general. The negroes are declared to be 
the dupes of designing men, comparative strangers to the State, 
whose object is simply to fill their pockets out of the public 
S])oil. Political charges are not mniced in South Carolina. 
There is room, indeed, to hope for a good deal of exaggeration. 
The exclusion of the superior part of the population li'om all 
influence in public affairs must of itself tend to magnify the 



42 CHARLESTON. [cu. vi. 

enormity of everything enormous, and to distort everything not 
quite square that is done. The members and dependants of the 
iState Administration are said, after having dei)reciated the Soutli 
Carolina bonds to 40 and 35 cents, and bought in Largely at such 
prices, to have then offered gold interest at New York, which at 
once advanced the price to 95 cents, and enabled them to pocket 
millions. I'ossible and condemnatory enough, but it was a good 
thing in itself to restore the financial credit of the State ; and in 
North Carolina, for example, the business men and the pro- 
prietors have since the war urged upon the Legislature to place 
the public credit of the State on the best footing, and will not 
desist till they succeed, under the conviction that honesty tJlf the 
public creditor is the best policy, and the corner-stone of all 
progress and improvement, v State Commissions are said to be 
issued on roads, lands, and other departments, the members of 
which do little but job and make profit to themselves and their 
friends. The State Government buys lands on which to settle 
and give homes to negroes. This is commissioned, and land 
is said to undergo sale and resale before it becomes the property 
of the State. It is not believed that the ilegroes will in any 
considerable number make homes on these properties, and the 
only advantage I have incidentally discovered from such settle- 
nunits is in one instance where the negroes, not ha\ing crops 
enough of their own to occu])y their labour, formed a reserve 
force from which a neighbouring planter has drawn extra hands 
to gather in his cotton. Railway contracts and railway bonds, 
in which the State has its finger, are also suspected of offering 
opportunities not exactly consistent with the public good. The 
])liosphate deposits in the bay and rivers have been leased at a 
royally of a dollar per ton to a single company, not, 1 am to 
believe, without heavy sums distributed in the House of llepre- 
sentatives; but the principle of this transaction is discussed 
freely by all parties, and it is thought by some that the law of 
the United States will not sanction a commercial monopoly of 
what is public estate. A State census was taken last year, 
which is thought to have been a superfluous labour, seeing that 
tilt' deceimial census ordered by Congress fell to be taken this 
year, and the Governor is supposed to have sought in this way 
to give employment to partisans, and to secure votes. Every- 
thing thus moves in an atmosphere of political suspicion. v One 
of the most favourable signs, indeed, is the keenness with which 
the acts of the State Government and Legislature are scrutinized, 
and the activity with which the native white population endea- 
vour to recover inttuence and authority both in the State and in 
C(jngress. Trior to the recent elections, they organised a Eeform 
Union on the basis of the political and civil equality of the 
negroes, turned out in large numbers to the liallot-boxes, pro- 



cH. VI.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA A?. 

tected the negroes who were voting on their side, and in 
Charleston succeeded. But, throughout the State, the move- 
ment so far has failed to divide the negro vote with the Radical 
party, who remain in a large majority. The principles of the 
Eeform Union seem to he consistently maintained in practice. 
Many of the white electors in the city voted for Delarge, a negro 
tailor, as representative of their district in Congress, because 
they believed him to be more trustworthy than his white 
opponents. 

I allude at this length to political affairs in South Carolina, 
because it is very o])vious that a system of government restiog 
almost wholly on the votes of the negroes is not a desirable state 
of affairs as regards either the State itself or the general interests 
of the Union. It destroys confidence in the integrity and 
stability of the Administration, prevents the investment of 
money, and renders impossil)le that hearty co-operation of the 
public authorities with the substantial people of the State which 
is so essential to the interests of all classes of the community. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Exports of Cotton from Ch;irleston before and since the War. — Opening 
inaile for New York Speculators. — Decrease of Banking Capital in South 
Carolina. — A Fortunate Development. — The Phosphate Deposits — Their 
Extent and Characteristics — Manufacture into Manures. — Great activity 
of the New Trade. — Eice Cultivation likely to dimijiish. — The Environs of 
Charleston. 

[Charleston, S.C. — Nov. 10 to Nov. 14.] 

Immediately before the war the port of Charleston passed out 
to sea as many as half a million of bales of cotton in a year. 
This large supply was drawn from many wide districts beyond 
the borders of South Carolina, the total production of ginned 
cotton in which was 300,000 bales in 1850, and 354,412 bales in 
1860, tliis latter being the largest crop wliich the State had ever 
produced. The extended commercial relations of Charleston, 
and its convenience as a place of shipment for the cotton of 
parts of North Carolina, Middle Georgia, the Sea Islands, and 
regions still more distant, were thus well established before the 
war. Charleston is resuming all her old connections, but has to 
contend with new conditions of railway comnnmication in the 
interior, as well as with the fresh How of capital and commercial 
energy into ports formerly occu^jyiug a subordinate position 
which has characterised the last few years of reviving industry 
and enterprise in the South. But all the old sections of the 
country from whicli cotton came to Charleston continue to send 
her more or less still ; and with some furtlier d(3velopment of her 
railway system, and an increase of banking and connnercial 
capital, Charleston is certain to maintain a leading position both 
as a market and a port of shipment for cotton. She exported 
in the year ended August 31 last, 238,000 bales of Upland cotton 
and 13,000 bales of Sea Island, which, though much short of 
ante-war times, show a large increase on preceding years since 
the war, and from the high prices realized present a volume of 
trade in money value which com])ares favourably with the most 
prosperous times in Charleston. Tlie cotton exported here in the 
past year is estimated at 25,750,000 dollars, and, with a new 
crop still larger coming forward rapidly to market, has produced 



cii. VII.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 45 

a very satisfactory feeling, both retrospectively and prospectively. 
There is probably, in the meantime, a larger proportion of the cotton 
exported from Charleston sent forward here simply for shipment, 
.and giving little return to the town itself, than in former times. 
The cotton speculators at New York push over the heads of the 
local merchants and factors, and, by cutting before the point, do 
little good probably to themselves, while impoverishing the trade 
of the Southern seaports and muddling and cont'using the 
market. Instances have occurred in which they have bought 
cotton in the interior, cash on the spot, upon which advances 
had already been made by Southern merchants ; but this, of 
course, is a practice which cannot extend, and immediately 
checks itself Yet the excessive activity of speculation in buy- 
ing and moving cotton is very apparent, and is of doubtful 
benefit either to the planter or to the consumer. The poverty to 
which the cotton dealers of Charleston were reduced by the war, 
and the ruin which fell upon all her financial resources, made an 
opening for the capital of speculators of which they have availed 
themselves, and which only closes up as the profits of trade 
once more accumulate and the town becomes richer. Before the 
war Charleston had a banking capital of 13,000,000 dollars, 
whereas to-day she has a banking capital of only 1,892,000 
dollars. The State of South Carolina, outside of Charleston, 
had a banking capital before the war of 3,000,000 dollars, but 
now of only 300,000 dollars. The crippled capacity of planters 
and merchants to raise and move such large crops of exportable 
produce as those of South Carolina may be inferred from these 
facts. The charges for the use of money are enormous. The 
banks turn over money at the rate of 1 8 to 24 per cent., on a 
class of business which presents little or no risk. In the country 
districts the rates are still more exorbitant, so that it is with 
money as with everything else that enters into the production 
and transport of cotton — it is loaded with a costliness in dollars 
of now all but par value with gold, which to an Englishman or 
Scotchman appears simply unbearable. Hence the cry for a 
high price ; hence the difficulty and discontent into which every 
fall seems to plunge the producer ; and hence the struggling 
condition of the Southern States despite their natural advantages 
and hold on the commercial world. Until capital be more largely 
established on the spot for the trading purposes of the country, 
and substantial reductions of the tariff permit a more direct trade 
between the South and Europe, and bills on England become 
saleable in the great depots of Southern produce, the cotton 
trade can hardly be in a sound condition, while it is impossible 
that such cities as Chaileston can be enriched by the vast inland 
countries behind them, or be to them in return the strength, 
support, and ornament they might well be. 



46 CHARLESTON. [en. vii. 

Afcanwhile, the most fortunate thing that Cduld lyive occurred 
in the present circumstances of Charleston has o/zturred, and is 
in full progress of commercial development. \^\\n.?: been found 
\vithin the last two or three years that all round Chai'leston, and 
at a few feet from the surface, there are immense marl deposits, 
so full of phosphates that they cannot be anything else than 
incalculalile heaps of animal remains tlirown or washed together, 
such as science has hitherto not been able to explain, and as 
commerce, with its clear eye for means of wealtlyind profit, has 
not hitherto discovered in any part of tlie world.6^iie deposits are 
in the form of little lime-like nodules, light in weiglit and easily 
crushed and pulverized. Mixed with these are all but completely 
petrified ribs, vertebrae, tusks, and other bones of both land and 
sea monsters of the early tertiary period. So perfect in form 
are these petrified bones, that, with a collection ample enough, an 
Owen might have little difficulty in constructing skeletons of 
the original animals. From some specimens as much as 85 per 
cent, of pure bone phosphate has been obtained by chemical 
analysis. But the petrifaction in most cases is too complete for 
easy treatment, and the great matter commercially at present 
are the little chalky and irregularly rounded nodules, which 
yield from 45 to G5 per cent, of bone phosphate. They are 
found lying in layers under a thin top-dressing of sandy soil, 
embedded in a bluish clay and earth, and are dug out by pick 
and shovel much in the same fashion as potatoes. The scientific 
record is that these layers extend over an area of 70 miles 
by GO, but, as known to conmierce here, there is given an area 
of 60 miles by 20, including tlie river beds. The deposit 
is found in the beds of all the shore rivers, and on the land 
lying between. The layers vary from six inches to several feet 
deep. The digging, being done by hand, is not pursued beyond 
four feet, but a new trench is opened, and the digging carried 
on in the easiest form. An acre has been known to yield 1,:^00 
tons of nodules. The river and marine deposit differs from the 
land deposit in being of a blackish colour, harder, and with not 
so large a percentage of phosphate. The average richness in 
])hosphate of these deposits is usually given at 45 for river and 
57 for land. The nodules, when dug up, are washed in long 
troughs with paddles worked by a strong stream of water from 
a force-pump, and, thus freed from clay and sand, are sold on 
the wharves or conveyed into the factories constructed at 
Charleston for their conversion into soluble phosphate manures. 
These establishments first put them through kilns to dry them 
thoroughly, then crush them into pebbles, and afterwards grind 
them into fine ])owder by the ordinary circidar millstones. In 
this state the materiid is taken to a loft, where it is washed with 
sulphuric acid, and subjected to such varied chemical treatment 



en. VII.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 47 

and composition as may be desired in the iinal product. When 
wheeled off from the chemical apparatus into a heap, it cakes, 
and has to be ground again, after wliicli it is put into bags, and 
is ready to be transported and applied to the soil. An inunense 
business has already been done both in the raw and manu- 
factured article. The nodules wei^e first extracted for manufac- 
ture into manure in the North, but the whole business has been 
taken up briskly in Charleston, and to import artificial manures 
into South Carolina is now like carrying coals to Newcastle. 
An export of the nodules to the most distant parts is growing 
into magnitude. Vessels are loading just now with this phos- 
phate deposit for England and Scotland ; and such is the energy 
with which the Charleston men have thrown themselves into 
the utilisation of this mine of wealth round their shores, that 
the export of the raw material is likely to increase with rapid 
stride, freight being probably the greatest difticulty in the case. 
As for the manufacture of superphosphate manures here for local 
purposes of fertilisation, the result is placed beyond all doubt. 
The Wando Company, which was the first to enter fully into the 
trade, divided 30 per cent, of profit, and created by its success 
a little furore for phosphate digging and manufacture. There 
are now twelve companies operating or about to operate in this 
]iew industry, and local works for the maimfacture of sulphuric 
acid have also been set agoing. Tlie planters are taking the 
manure freely. On the day I arrived in Charleston, bills for a 
million dollars of this home-made manure fell due and were 
satisfactorily discharged. One effect has been to benefit the 
railways in giving them more inland freight, of which they 
have hitherto felt the scarcity. Some of the planters I have 
met with say that the manure is as good as Peruvian guano, 
while others do not give quite so favourable a report. The 
price is 30 per cent, less than guano ; and with an expenditure 
of three to five dollars to the acre there is the most abundant 
practical testimony of its productive and profitable results. 
The scientific men have hitherto not thrown much light on this 
remarkable natural phenomenon. I believe Dr. Shephard, of 
the Medical College here, has had more to do in bringing this 
extraordinary deposit into notice than any other. Agassiz came 
and looked at it, and was deeply interested, but declined to 
enter into any elaborate scientific diagnosis or investigation. It 
seems that the people had been long carting the nodules off the 
soil as an obstruction to the plough, and were laying the streets 
with them, ignorant or heedless of their valuable properties. 
They are, no doubt, a superficial deposit, and cannot be dug out 
to much depth. There is usually a rapid end to such concen- 
trated animal remains. The nodules overlie an immensely deep 
bed of white limestone marl, in which Dr. Shephard has found 



48 CHARLESTON. [ch. vii. 

froni 2 to por cent, of phosphate of lime. There is an artesian 
Avell in Charleston, that has been bored clown 1,200 feet for 
water, passing throngh eight or nine hundred feet of this 
white limestone marl, which has been recognized as under- 
lying all the country round. Over this dense bed of marl tlie 
l)hosphate nodules are found, sprinkled as in a layer in some 
})laces of a few inches deep, and cropping out in stray pieces 
on the surfiice of the soil; but from the varying thickness of the 
layers, and the frequency with which the diggers have not 
exhausted them at the depth of three or four feet, the pro- 
bability is that they will be found in pockets of occasionally 
great richness. The deposit has already, at all events, been 
found uniformly over an immense area, and science has begun 
to forecast it.s discovery at other points of the coast from Ac([uia 
Creek to the shores of Florida. The remarkable thing com- 
mercially is that these phosphate deposits of South Carolina 
have been brought into daylight and practical use at the 
moment Avhen they are 'most needed to fertilise the sandy and 
exhausted soils of the Atlantic States, and to bring them up to 
a better competitive level ^^•ith the richer lands of the Gulf and 
the ^Mississippi. To South Carolina they are indeed twice 
blessed, for while increasing tlie productiveness of the inland 
soil, they wUl gather immediately at Charleston a large amount 
of capital, which is here one of the things most wanted. 

The phosphate " diggings " may be expected to make serious 
inroads on the rice lands round Charleston. But this is i)ro- 
bably no great loss. Nothing could be easier than to extend 
the cultivation of rice all about Charleston, which on various 
sides has broad, shallow, sedgy swamps, through which the tide 
flows from the rivers. I went out a few miles to a cotton plan- 
tation, and a part of the road — made by a heavy deposit of 
shells — passed through a section of this swampy ground. The 
part of the swamp thus separated was rapidly forming into good 
agricultural soil. The tidal water must be banked off from rice 
land, and a free command of fresh obtained for irrigation. It 
would not be difticult, by a few embankments, to make much 
new rice ground about Charleston ; but the wet culture of rice 
is admitted, even in these parts, to be more fatal to human life 
than almost anything else, and to extend it up to the very 
streets of a large town would be bad policy. liice was a 
diminishing product of the United States for ten years before 
the war. Yet South Carolina sold of her crop of the year 
just ended 40,000 tierces, which were not only an increase on the 
previous year, b\it were two-fifths of the total production of 
rice in the American Union. Almost the whole went to home 
consumjjtion. South Carolina rice has all but ceased to be an 
article of export to foreign countries. The cotton plantation 



CH. VII.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 49 

which I went to see did not present a paradise to be put in 
contrast with a rice-field. It had been the pet place of the 
owner and cultivator of several plantations. There was a 
splendid mansion closed up, and flower and vegetable gardens 
over which the pigs of the negroes had free " ish and entry," 
and a noble verandah from which there was a delightful view 
of the Cooper liiver and of fine avenues of trees by which the 
plantation was approached and bounded on all sides. There 
were also superior fields of cotton, sown with Dickson's seed 
and amply phosphated, and so full of young bolls that it was 
doubtful whether so late they could ever come to maturity. Yet 
it was confessed to me that all would not pay. This is probably 
not the way in which cotton can be profitably cultivated in these 
days, and my city friend, who pays a rent of 700 dollars for the 
place, seemed quite conscious of the fact, and not to care much 
about it one way or other. Yet I could not but admire the 
environs of Charleston — good roads which one expects to see on 
approaching any place of importance, \*hether it be the chiet 
city of a State or the residence of a duke or a millionaire — 
noble trees, too deeply draped perhaps with the mossy veils 
peculiar to miasmatic regions — summer gardens which adverse 
circumstances have closed, and many other places of public 
and private resort, now silent and neglected, but capable oi 
being repaired and reanimated with a richer and brighter life 
than that of former days. 



CHAriER VIIL 

The Negro's " best Friends." — Sinister complexion of Politics. — Kindly 
Social Influences at work.— State of Education. — System of Medical 
Relief in Charleston. — The Health Statistics. — Proportionate Mortality 
of Whites and Blacks. — Salubrity of the Climate. — Freedmen's Savings 
Banks. 

[CiiARLESTox, S.C. — Nov. 10 to Nov. 14.] 

Apart from the passing excitement of the elections just over, 
and the disappointment of the white population at the voting of 
the negroes en masse for the Republican or Eadical party, the 
general tone of social life in Charleston is kindly and temperate, 
and all classes of society are working together with considerable 
harmony for mutual good. The negro is beset at present by two 
parties who claim to be his " best friends." ^ The Republicans, 
who came in with the close of the war, appeal to him as his 
best if not only friends ; and, looking at the political issues 
of the war, and the decree of emancipation, with its elaborate 
guarantees of reconstruction, the negroes could not but regard 
the Republican party politically as their friends. Nor can it be 
denied that the organs of the Federal Government have laboured 
to introduce institutions for the moral and social benefit of the 
negroes, and, as far as their limited means would allow, have be- 
friended that large portion of the population. I have not found 
any one on the other side who is prepared to blame the negroes 
for voting almost imiversally as they did in the elections which 
raised General Grant to the Rresidentshi]), or who a})pears t() 
have expected that they Avould or should have been other than 
fast adherents of their emancipators. But the political agitators 
and hungiy spoil-and-oilice hunters of the party are accused of 
appealing to the ignorance and passions of the negro population 
■:— of telling them that the white people of the State arc eagerly 
seeking an opportunity of restoring slavery, which they have 
certainly no wish to do, and which they coidd not do even if 
they would ; and now, after five years of this, it is considered 
hard that the negroes — when there are great public objects of 
economy, protection from jobbery and coiTuption, and a sound 
and healthy administration of the affairs of the State to promote, 



CH. VIII.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 51 

in which the blacks are as closely interested as others — should 
cast their votes in a body against the great majority of the white 
population, and terrorise such of their own colour as are disposed 
to act differently. This feeling breaks out violently just now 
in bar-rooms and at street corners, and is often expressed more 
quietly and reasonably, yet firmly, in private circles. IMany 
seem ready to despair of the negro as a politician, while others 
talk of a " war of races " and other disorders sure to arise. The 
feeling is no doubt all the stronger since the evils of " carpet- 
bagging " and negro demagoguery are apparent to respectable 
men of both parties, and, while violently denounced on one side, 
are not denied, but sometimes admitted and deplored, on the 
other. Though politics in South Carolina thus %vear a some- 
what sinister complexion, yet there is a healthy action and a 
sober practical opinion underneath the surface that promise 
beneficial results. The issues left by the war are being rapidly 
closed ; the Reform Union, which has figured prominently in 
the late elections as the organ of the native white people of the 
State, recognizes fully the civil and political equality of the 
negroes not only as an election platform, but as the fundamental 
law of the United States ; this position is likely to be main- 
tained, and may be expected soon to bring about in this, as in 
other Southern States, a better balance of parties. Meanwhile 
social bonds are being knit together, and many ameliorative 
influences are quietly at work. The ladies, who had a long 
apprenticeship of self-devotion during the war, are exerting 
themselves to give work, and to sell the work of poor needle- 
women of both races. Nearly all the old charities of Charleston 
remain in operation, and schools and missions are doing much 
to improve the population. 

By a law passed five years before the war a public school 
system was introduced into South Carolina, which became well 
developed in Charleston ; and now the State has passed under 
the new free-school principle, embodied in the Constitutions of 
the Southern States under the Acts of Eeconstruction. It is 
only by degrees that this system can get into general operation, 
and, indeed, it is doubtful whether the ground lost in education 
during the war has yet been recovered. The official statistics 
for 1860 give 20,716 pupils in 757 public schools, whereas they 
show for 1869 only 881 public schools and 16,418 pupils. The 
new law is now, however, being put into operation ; the State 
has appropriated 50,000 dollars to this object,, and, aided by the 
Peabody I'und and other voluntary contributions. South Carolina 
may be expected soon to be tolerably well furnislied with the 
means of education for the whole population. Charleston is 
probably more. advanced in this respect than any other part of 
the State, and the education of negro children is already quite a 

E 2 



I 



52 CIIARLESrON. [en. viii. 

prominent feature, one buildiiijT devoted to the coloured people 
Leinu; capable of receiving 1,000 scholars. 

There is in Charleston a well-ori^anized system of medical 
relief, and much attention is paid to sanitary conditions and 
arrangements. The city is divided into five health districts, over 
each of which there is appointed a physician in charge, with an 
office and dispensary, where attendance is given an hour every 
morning and an hour every afternoon. The physicians are also 
reipiired, when called upon, to visit certain public institutions — 
such as the Alms House, the Old Folks' Home, the Small-pox 
Hospital — situated in their districts. From the annual report 
for last year of Dr. Lebby, the City Eegistrar, which is very full, 
it appears that the total mortality of whites was 220 males and 
233 females — 453 ; and of blacks, 421 males and 497 females 
— 918. The greatest mortality of whites occurred in the months 
of June, July, and August, and of blacks in July, August, 
September, and October. Of the 453 whites who died, 181 
were children of five years and under; and of the 918 blacks 
who died, 461 were children of five years and under — the 
mortality of infants among the coloured people being propor- 
tionately much greater than among the whites. Both races 
seem ecpially long-lived, though the coloured people would seem 
to have the advantage. Among the deaths are recorded 33 
whites from 70 to 80 years, 9 from 80 to 90 year.s, and 6 from 
90 to 100 years ; and 44 blacks from 70 to 80 years, 29 from 80 
to 90 years, and 10 from 90 to 100 years. But the remarkable 
fact is tlie greatly larger mortality of the negroes, in proportion 
to their total number, as compared with the white people. The 
census taken last year by order of the Governor, and generally 
accepted as substantially correct for Charleston, gave the popula- 
tion of the city as 20,354 whites, and 24,570 blacks and coloured. 
On this basis, the mortality of 1869 shows one death in 4493 
whites, and one death in 26*77 coloured people. In other words, 
very nearly twice as many coloured people died as white people 
in proportion to their respective numbers. Before the war this 
disparity in the mortality of the two races was not so marked. 
The returned population of Charleston in 1860 was 26,969 
whites, and 21,440 coloured. The mortality of whites in that 
year was 719, or one in 37'5, and the mortality of coloured 
people 753, or one in 28-47. The health of tlie whites has 
greatly im])rovod since the war, while the health of the negroes 
has declined, till the mortality of tlie coloured population, greater 
than the mortality of the whites before the war, has now become 
so markedly greater, that nearly two coloured die for every 
one white jicrson out of equal numbers of each. To those accus- 
tomed to tliink of slavery only as prolific of every form of evil, 
this increased mortality of the negroes under tsmancipatiou 



CH. VIII.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 53 

may appear siiqDrising. But when one considers the strict, 
ahnost domestic control under which the slaves were kept in 
Charleston, how they were cared for when young and provided 
for when old, and how their number in the city was kept down 
to the actual demand for their services, one finds natural reasons 
enough for an increased liability to death in the severe ordeal 
they have passed through since their emancipation. In 1860 
there were 5,529 more white than coloiired people in Charleston. 
There are now 4,217 more black and coloured than whites. The 
absolute increase of the negro population of Charleston since 
1860 is 3,130. They flocked in from the country at the close of 
the war, deserting the Sea Islands in large bodies, and produced 
all the evils of overcrowding at a time when the white popula- 
tion, who could alone employ and maintain them, were not only 
thinned in numbers, but reduced to poverty, and the trade and 
wealth of the town were destroyed. Such a state of tilings 
could only have a disastrous effect on health and life, the traces 
of which still remain. The ph5'^sicians in charge of the health 
districts also complain of the extreme carelessness of the negroes 
in following their advice, and administering the medicines pre- 
scribed. A negro woman will come with her sick child to the 
dispensary at the morning hour, but does not return in the 
afternoon or next day as she ought, but makes her appearance 
a few days after to announce that she administered some charm 
of her own, and that the little patient is dead. New classes of 
disease are also notable in the returns of negro mortality — such 
as consumption, from which they used to be peculiarly exempt, 
and diseases which spring from immoral causes. Yet with all 
this access of negro mortality in Charleston, the whole deaths in 
1869 were not more than 1 in 32-77, which it would be quite 
possible to match, and even exceed, in the mortality returns of 
various large cities of the United Kingdom. But if the negro 
population and mortality of Charleston be excluded, and the 
white population only considered, there is a degree of healthful- 
ness which is almost vmequalled in large towns of the old 
country. The mortality of whites in 1869 in Charleston was 
only 1 in 44-93. The mortality of all England in the same year 
I find to have been 1 in 44-17, and of aU Scotland 1 in 42-52. 

I imagine there is much nonsense thought and spoken about 
the unhealthiness of these Southern countries and Southern sea- 
ports. Any passing impressions of mine, indeed, would be a 
very unsafe guide ; for I have been travelling in an atmosphere 
so bright and clear, and yet so temperate and agreeable, and so 
pleasant by night and day, as to form a rather fascinating con- 
trast to the climate of the United Kingdom at the same season 
of the year. This is the famous " Indian summer" of the South, 
and Charleston has its earlier and fiercer summer, when there is 



54 CHARLESTON. [cii. vni. 

a considerable amount of sickness, and when febrile affections 
prevail. lUit this city has been singnlaily free from all epidemic 
disease for some years past. On tlie hottest day in 1809 the 
mean temperature at 2 p.m. was 8()-77, and the thermometer is 
never known to rise above 97 degrees ; while in eight months of 
the year the temperature has an equable range from 50 to 05 
degrees, with fair weather, and rainfall only heavy at very rare 
intervals, as the prevailing characteristics of the climate. No 
doubt the health of the town owes much to the M'cll-organized 
stair of medical oflicers and the efficient an'angements made for 
the treatment of disease among the poorer classes. I was 
politely shown through the City Hospital by Dr. Lebby — an 
establishment of great extent, marked by scrupulous cleanliness 
and order, and devoted equally to white and coloured subjects. 
The white ftnnale ward is probably as lightsome, airy, and fine a 
sick-room as is to be seen in a public hospital anywhere. There 
is a lunatic ward, the inmates of Mdiich are chiefly blacks of a 
veiy low order. There were only two M'hite women in the 
number — one of whom, a lady of Italian origin, had been driven 
to distraction in her matrimonial relations. Surgical cases, some 
of them very difficult, are also treated with marked success, the 
proportion of negroes operated upon being about 6 to 1 of 
whites. There is no general registry of births and marriages in 
Charleston, which detracts from the light thrown by its other- 
wise ample vital statistics on the j)hysical and social condition 
of the population. 

That the negroes are improving, and many of them rising 
under freedom into a very comfortable and civilized condition, is 
not only admitted in all the upper circles of society, but would 
strike even a transient wayfarer like myself in the great number 
of decent coloured men of the labouring class and of happy 
coloured families that one meets. There is an institution in 
Charleston which early attracted my attention. In Broad Street 
one sees tlie office of the National Freedmen's Savings and Trust 
Company. I believe this form of National Savings Bank for the 
negroes was founded by the Freedmen's Bureau in the first years 
after the war. It has spread over all the chief towns of the 
South, and has already in deposit upwards of two millions of 
dollars, almost entirely the savings of the negro population. 
The deposits in the Charleston branch were 105,000 dollars at 
the end of October, and are monthly on the increase. Go in 
any forenoon, and the office is found full of negi'oes depositing 
little sums of money, drawing little sums, or remitting to distant 
parts of the country where they have relatives to support or 
debts to discharge. The Freedmen's Savings Bank transacts a 
general exchange business betwixt the various points at which 
it has branches. Perhaps "branches" is not the exactly proper 



CH. vjii.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 55 

designation, for each bank is an independent corporation in 
itself, lias a subscribed capital, is governed by its stock- 
liolders, and is altogether probably too like an ordinary com- 
mercial bank for the humble functions it has to discharge. Yet 
there is a certain degree of national concentration and control. 
The banks are under the patronage and protection of the 
Federal Government, and from the centre at Washington a 
monthly Circular is published, which reports the progress of all 
the various offices, and contains an amount of general matter 
very suitable to the negroes, and very desirable for them to read. 
The funds are for the most part invested in the Federal Debt, 
the high interest of which enables from 5 to G per cent, to 
be paid to the depositors. But the Federal Government does 
not appear to be bound to make good to the depositors any loss 
accruing from the failure of a bank through embezzlement or 
any other cause. The responsibility in such a case would fall 
on the subscribed capital of the stockholders so far as it was 
sufficient to make good the deficiency. There is an opening 
in this state of affairs for partial and local disasters, which is 
happily closed in the National Security Savings Banks of the 
United Kingdom. But practically the Freedmen's Savings and 
Trust Companies do for the negi'oes what our National Savings 
Banks do for the working classes of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland ; and it is gratifying to find that the negroes have in five 
years accumulated nearly half a million sterling of deposits. 
This result is the more significant since it is confined almost 
wholly to what were formerly the Slave States, and is but very 
feebly developed in New York and otlier Northern towns where 
it has been tried. The number of depositors in Charleston is 
2,790, of whom nine-tenths are negroes. The average amount 
at the credit of individual depositors is about 60 dollars. The 
negro begins to deposit usually with some special object in view. 
He wishes to buy a mule and cart, or a house, or a piece of land, 
or a shop, or simply to provide a fund against death, sickness, 
or accident, and pursues his object frequently until if has been 
accomplished. 

While some portion of the former slaves are probably sinking 
into an even worse condition than the first, there are others who 
are clearly rising, both morally and socially. The system of 
free labour, as was to be expected, will thus, in its own rough 
but salutaiy way, sift the chaff from the wheat; and but for 
the electoral antagonism of the moment, and the parading more 
than enough of negroes as senators, as policemen, as militia, as 
the armecl force and the dominant power of the State, the 
relations of the two races on both sides would here be more 
kindly and cordial, and the prospects of the negroes themselves 
more hopeful than could well have been anticipated. 



CIIAITER IX. 

The Capital of South Carolina. — The State Fair a failure. — Usury. — Governor 
Scott on the Position of Affairs. The Blue Rid<fe Railway project. — Mr. 
Treasurer Parker on Taxation and Ncjfro Free Labour. — Political Opinions 
of the Farmers. — Arguments for and against Payment of Negro Farm- 
labourers by Wages or Share of the Crops. — Railway Freight. — Cotton- 
bagging and the Price of Cotton. 

[Columbia, S.C. — Nov. 15-16.] 

It was on the morning of the first frost this season in tlie South 

that I was landed on the railway platform here from Charleston. 

Day had just broke, and nothing could be more inspiriting than 

the clear sky and sharp air, the paling moon and stars being 

just visible and no more, as the glorious effulgence along tlie 

eastern horizon shot its golden light up to the zenith. The 

country all round cultivated and interesting. The hills, or rather 

mounds, lower and rounder, the hollows less deep and abrupt, 

and the M'hole landscape presenting a more swelling outline 

than at liichmond in Virginia, with woods no more than enough 

for ornament. The hotels in these parts are very oliliging. They 

send carriages to the railway depots for guests, whether they can 

entertain them or not, while an express company's van picks up 

the baufiaue, for both of which services a handsome fee has to 

be paid. Columbia is a city of such " magnificent distances 

that a stranger is never quite sure when he is in it or out of it. 

I am conscious of having arrived at the depot, and of being 

there in the country ; of having by-and-by seen a stately building 

on an eminence which was clearly the Capitol, and two or three 

. church spires about as widely apart as such objects may be seen 

in any Kuglish country landscape; of having been set down at a 

liotel lull from fioor to roof with country-i)eoi)le who had come 

in to the State Fair; and iinally, of liaving sauntered forth to 

look for anotlicr inn and found myself in tlic country again. 

Columbia, it will be remembered, was completely burned down 

by Sherman in the war, the State House being almost the only 

building tliat was spared or, firei)rnof, proved iin]>ervious to 

tlie flames. The town is b«?ing built up anew by degrees, and 



en. IX.] ilTJTE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 57 

many fine brick houses have been erected since the close of 
the war. But what magnificent outlines of streets sweeping 
spaciously for miles over the heights and hollows of that rich 
landscape, having rows of fine old trees on either side, and, inter- 
sected by other wooded avenues equally broad and long, opening 
up in all directions the most delightful vistas ! These vacant 
streets have solitary residences here and there, and since it must 
have cost a good deal to lay them out, and perhaps something 
considerable to keep them up, the suburban residents of the 
capital of South Carolina enjoy for nothing an amenity which 
money could hardly command in any part of Western Europe. 

The State Fair, though attended by a multitude of happy- 
looking people, was a failure as regards agricultural interest or 
display. There was little or no stock, which surprised me more 
in Columbia than in Charleston, where the same deficiency was 
very observable. The South Carolinians cannot vie in this 
respect with the Virginians. There is either no superior stock in 
this State, or the stockowners have not sufficient interest in its 
extension to be at the trouble to show it. The present disjointed 
state of political relations has also probably something to do 
with it. But the truth is that the Atlantic Cotton States have, 
till very recently, neglected stock-raising, for which they have 
some excuse, not only in the absorbing attention which the 
cotton-plant requires, but in the nature of the soil, which is un- 
favourable to the development of good pasture land or winter 
forage. The difficulty may, no doubt, be overcome with care 
and perseverance, and it is only now that agriculturists in these 
parts are awakening to the importance of combining general 
elements of agricultural wealth with the growth of cotton. 

The cotton-growers are not in the most satisfied mood this 
season. The heavy fall in the price of cotton — partly in conse- 
quence of the Franco-Prussian war, and partly owing to the 
large crop of last year, now reckoned to have been 3,300,000 
bales, and the still larger being gathered — has occurred when 
they had placed themselves under heavy accounts for manures, 
and disappoints their expectations of profit. The phosphates 
are generally allowed, however, to have had a marked and 
favourable effect on the crop, and increased quantity will pro- 
bably in many cases retrieve the fall' in value. Complaints of 
the usurious rates charged for money are general among the 
farming community. Twenty-five and even thirty per cent, is 
taken by banks and people who have money to lend as a quite 
ordinary rate; and it is doubtful whether the planters are as 
thrivino- as the conmiercial interests around them. 

Governor Scott, whose administration I had heard severely 
blamed, courteously favoured me with an interview, and entered 
freely into conversation on the condition and prospects of the^ < 



58 COLUMBU. [cii. ix. 

State. He said that some ofllcial protection of the negroes was 
necessary, and, indeed, found to be unavoidable by jiersons in 
authority. Alluding to the dictum of Chief-Justice Tanney on 
the Dred Scott case, that "a negro hail no rights which a white 
man was bound to respect," he remarked that there were still 
some who seemed to be actuated by that view of the question. 
He had had to give safe-conducts to negroes leaving the State; 
and subordinate magistrates were not unfrequently called upon, 
and felt bound, in the discharge of their duty, to throw the ])ro- 
tection of tlie law over the coloured race. Governor Scott 
expressed a very hopeful view of the progress of South Caro- 
lina, and explained to me on the map the merits of the JJlue 
Ridge Railway, the formation of which he is most anxious to 
promote. This project, which was prepared two years ago, and 
for which a company has been organized, and the necessary 
powers obtained to subscribe capital and borrow on mortgage 
bonds endorsed by the State, is designed to connect the exist- 
ing railway communications of South Carolina from Anderson 
county with Knoxville in Tennessee and with the lines to Ken- 
tucky and the Western States. To get into direct and conti- 
nuous conmiunication by rail with the great AVest is a common 
object of ambition to all the Atlantic Cotton States and their 
seaports, and may be said to have become an absolute necessity 
of South Carolina if she is to keep pace with the progress made 
in this direction by her sister States. The Blue Ridge Railroad 
would not only be of essential importance to Charleston and 
Port Royal, but would develop a large traffic betwixt the interior 
of South Carolina and the rich and productive States both to the 
west and the south. The produce of Kentucky is sent round 
eleven or twelve hundred miles, and brought back to points in 
South Carolina within a hundred miles or two of the place from 
which it started. The line is being extended at both ends, and 
some cradincr or earthwork is beino- done, but the borrowing 
powers of the company have not yet been exercised. Upon my 
observing that American railroad companies sometimes proviiled 
that their rails should be home-made, the Governor said that 
this was not the case in South Carolina, and that, on the con- 
trary, it was a condition of the lUue Ridge Company that the 
road should be laid with the best English rails. Mr. Parker, the 
State Treasurer, with whom I conversed for some time, stated 
that, before the war, the assessment for State purposes was levied, 
among other means and substance, on the slaves ; that this 
source of revenue was now, of course, abolished ; and that a 
larger rate had to be laid on land and other substance proper, all 
of which had been greatly reduced by the war, and was only 
being gradually, though rapidly, restored. ^Ir. Parker is of 
I opinion that the labour of the negro as a free man is more effi- 



CH. IX.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 59 

cient than when he was a slave ; and in proof of this conclusion 
adduces that many of the negroes perished during the war and 
immediately after it, that the negro women are now almost 
wholly withdrawn from field labour, that the children who were 
made available under slavery for industrial purposes are being 
more and more absorbed by the schools, ancl yet that, with all j 
these diminutions of the labour power, the production of South ' 
Carolina and other Cotton States is rapidly rising to a magnitude -^ 
equal to that of any former time. 

The "fairs" in the South afford a good opportunity for obtain- 
ing information on country affairs. The hotels are filled with 
intelligent men, who all seem to know one another, and M'ho are 
ready enough to enter into conversation with strangers ; while 
the railway cars form a sort of free assembly, in which affairs 
are discussed with all openness. In my travels from Columbia 
towards Georgia I gathered much opinion, as it were, in the 
mass. The dissatisfaction of these country folks of South 
Carolina with the present state of government in the United 
States is palpable enough. They exclaim bitterly against the 
corruption which prevails in public life ; they are utterly 
opposed to the high tariff on European goods, looking upon it 
simply as a means of plundering the cultivators of the soil in 
the South and West for the benefit of Northern manufacturers, 
overgrown, they say, in wealth, and adepts in bribery and lobby- 
rolling ; they point to the enormous prices of goods sold in the 
Southern towns, and long for the growth of manufactures among 
themselves, and the direct importation of foreign goods into 
their own seaports ; they express disappointment that more 
direct trade has not sprung up with the South since the close of 
the war, the high tariff notwithstanding ; they declare American 
statesmen of the present day to be dwarfs and nobodies com- 
pared with those of former times ; and when the whole gamut 
of political discontent has been sounded, one often hears the 
remark, so startling to any European admirer of American Inde- 
pendence, that Washington made a capital mistake, and that it 
would have been better for the country to have remained under 
the rule of England. To such an appeal to British patriotism 
I could only reply that England could scarcely, in any circum- 
stances, have continued to govern so great a country as the 
• United States, and would certainly not be inclined to undertake 
the responsibility now. On political subjects the people are 
very emphatic, if not a little excited, and the party new^spapers 
are more emphatic and excited still. But on agricultural and 
business matters they at once become cool, practical, and reason- 
able, and talk with acute apprehension of the point in hand, 
whatever it may be. It is felt that the old system of cultivation, 
or rather want of cultivation, is no longer suitable or possible, 



60 COLUMBIA. [CH. ix. 

and that there must be deeper ploufihing, more attention ]iaid to 
stock and to the formation of r^ood larm-yards, uith plenty of 
manure and vegetable compost from the forest and the ditches, 
so as to give heart, vigour, and greater variety of elements to the 
soil. There is little or no disparagement of the negro as a 
labourer among respectable countrymen, who need his services 
and employ him. On the contrary, there is much appreciation 
of his good (qualities, a good deal of kindly patience towards his 
bad qualities, and much greater satisfaction with what he has 
done, and may yet be trained to do, as a free labourer, than one 
might be prepared to find. How to shape his relations as a 
farm labourer is thoroughly well canvassed. The alternative 
presented is that of paying him by a share of the crop or by 
wages, both of which plans have obtained a footing, and each of 
which is acknowledged by the practical mind of the planter to 
have its advantages. A summary of the arguments I have 
heard i^vo and con on this question would occupy a considerable 
space. But on the whole, so far, the preponderance of reason, 
as well as weight of testimony, inclines to the side of wages. 
One objection to the share system, which goes much deeper in 
my opinion than at first appears, is that it renders the negro 
indilferent to and reluctant to perform any kind of work on a 
plantation which does not bear immediately on the corn and 
cotton crops in which he has a share. A planter who cultivates 
on the share system must see his fences falling out of order, his 
manure heaps a diminishing quantity, and his hogs and cattle 
strayed, stolen, or starved ; or, resorting to the wages system after 
all, must employ special hands to do these and other kinds of 
larm work. As the system of agriculture improves, the neces- 
sary labour on plantations will become more and more varied, 
with the direct result of increasing the corn and cotton crops 
l)er acre ; and to pay wages to one class of men, probably 
whites, to do various kinds of work, in order that another class, 
certainly blacks, may share an increased abundance to which 
tliey have contributed nothing, will ])rove too unjust to be prac- 
ticable. The rapid and regular picking of the ' cotton crop, 
which is the greatest difficulty of the planter, has kept the share 
system more in countenance than probably anything else, but in 
practical experience it seems to fail at this point as at others. 
The share system implies rations to the negro from the beginning 
of the year to the end, and if the rations for a week are con- 
sumed in half that time, an additional sui)2>ly must be given, 
wjiich places the negTO so heavily in debt to his employer by 
the time the picking season has come, that he is apt, more espe- 
cially under tleclining prices as this year, to be regardless of the 
financial results of the partnership with his employer into which 
he entered in January. The picking of cotton, as liir as T know, 



CH. IX.] STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 61 

does not involve any greater riatnral difficulty than harvest 
season in all countries, when extra labour, stimulated by higher 
pay, flows freely into the fields, and crowns the labours of the 
husbandman with a success in which all feel they have a per- 
sonal interest. But in the thinly populated Cotton States of 
America, with labour on every plantation too inadequate for its 
ordinary routine of work, and vast spaces of mere wood, without 
town or village, betwixt one plantation and another, the social 
conditions are, of course, different. Yet some planters in South 
\ Carolina succeed in employing extra hands in the picking season, 
I giving rations and 50 cents per 100 lbs. of cotton picked. The 
! production of cotton per acre is no doubt very varied, but one 
hand and a mule in general cultivate 20 acres of cotton and 
10 of corn, producing 10 bales of cotton and 100 bushels of 
corn.^ One bale of cotton on good land per acre, with the help , 
of phosphates and good picking, may be attained in some/ 
instances ; but half a bale of cotton per acre is deemed a very' 
favourable result in these parts. 

The railways in South Carolina conduct the cotton freight on 
a rough-and-ready rate of a dollar per bale to Charleston, with- 
out being particular as to the weight of the bales, or a handful 
of miles of transport. One result is that the bales are becoming 
always heavier. Another curious instance of turning the penny 
to advantage is that the late high price of cotton has created a 
demand for heavy bagging, sold with the bale at the cotton 
price, which only the coarsest hempen looms of Kentucky can 
supply. As the price of cotton falls this temptation is reduced, 
and the point is just about reached when the protected hempen 
stuff of Kentucky is dearer than the unprotected cotton wool of 
the Southern States. 

^ A negro usually works two mules, but he cannot cultivate or gather the 
crop which his mules plough and " lay by, that is, finish for the season." He 
requires several hands, a little staff of labour, to make and gather the crop. 



CHAPTER X. 

Entry into Georgia. — The Town of Auj^usta — its Buildings — its Cotton 
Market. — Revolution in Agriculture. — Importance of selected Cotton 
Seed. — Large amount of Cotton grown by Small Farmers. — Opinion on 
the Negroes. — ^Augusta Cotton Factory. — Education Act. — Observance 
of the Sabbath. 

[Augusta, Ga. — Nov. 17-19.] 

INlY first acquaintance with the State of Georgia has heen made 
at the thriving and busy town of Augusta, situated on the border 
line of South Carolina, and connected with Columbia by an ex- 
cellent raih'oad. The town at once establishes in the mind of a 
stranger a favourable prepossession of the State. It is lively, 
well built, well organized, and as ami)ly furnished with mer- 
chandise as any small inland town of the most flourishing pro- 
vince could be expected to be. Augusta escaped direct devastation 
by the Federal armies during the war, and no doubt owes much 
of its compact condition and steady march to tliat happy immu- 
nity. But it was finally cut off from all its communications, and 
its inhal)itants shared the general impoverisliment which bliglited 
every portion of the Southern States. It is surprising, therefore, 
to see already so much spirit and abundance as prevail in Au- 
gusta. The town has a " Broadway," before which the imperial 
street of New York must, all circumstances considered, hide 
its diminished head ; for the Augusta Broadway is three times as 
broad as that of New York, and has a neatly-constructed market- 
])lace at either end, with as much space for expansion as in 
future may be necessary. But the Broadway of Augusta is really 
no make-believe. Nearly the whole ground-space is occupied 
with well-stocked stores, in which everything, from a needle to 
an anchor, from the humble fabrics woven on the spot to the 
finest cloths of Europe, from the commonest earthenware to the 
choicest crystal, and all the products of the soil from cranberries 
to cotton, may be bought. And how substantial the houses are, 
and how many fine buildings meet the eye ! The Freemasons 
have a juUared edifice as chaste and pure as the AVhite House at 
AVashingtoii, with their insignia brightly gilt on a ground as of 
alabaster. The dry and brilliant atmosphere encourages every- 
where a cheerful style of ornamentation. It is remarkable how 



CH. X.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 63 

widely the ancient Order of Freemasonry is spread throughout 
the Southern States. I find traces of it everywhere, and traces 
which sometimes reflect no little honour on the brotherhood. 
For example, a tract of land laid out in lots, with cottages and 
cultivation, where the widows and orphans of deceased Free- 
masons find quiet and comfortable homes ; or a school-house in 
some solitary district where it is difficult to discover a popu- 
lation, built by the Freemasons, who, content with the second 
story for their lodge-room, have devoted the lower to the educa- 
tional purposes of the community. 

Augusta is an extensive cotton market. Since the lifting of 
this year's crop began, the receipts have been about 1,500 bales 
a day. Tlie railroads place Augusta in rapid communication 
with the adjoining counties of South Carolina, and with all parts 
of Middle Georgia, and the cotton collected from these wide dis- 
tricts is poured down by rail to Savannah for shipment. The 
telegraph works all day betwixt Augusta and Savannah, and 
betwixt Augusta and towns farther inland, telling what cotton 
can be bought or is selling for ; while prices at New York and 
Liverpool are eagerly scanned, and form the basis of the day's 
transactions. The local factors and merchants deal freely in 
cotton, though the former operate chiefly on order from Savannah, 
Charleston, and New York. Seldom has cotton been brought 
more rapidly to market than this season, which is to be ascribed 
not only to the favourable weather, but to the activity of buyers 
and speculators, and the necessity, rather than the interest, of 
the planters ; for under the heavy fall of prices, generally attri- 
buted here to the war in Europe, and scarce at all to th'^ ^■"" ly 
expansion of the crop, the planter might be tempted, with the 
stock of American at Liverpool still low, and the return of peace 
probably not distant, to hold back in expectation of better prices. 
But the growers of cotton, though restoring rapidly their planta- 
tions and their stock of implements, are, for the most part, still 
poor in purse, and have to draw heavy advances on the growing 
crop. Paying from 2 to 2h per cent, for money per month, with 
storage and insurance charges to boot, the planter finds that to 
hold is a costly business, and that it is better to sell at once than 
to extend his borrowings and charges in the expectation of an 
advance of two or three cents per lb. The crop, save in so far 
as it may be interrupted by the action of middlemen and specu- 
lators, is therefore rolled from the field, over hundreds of miles 
of railway and thousands of miles of ocean, to the great markets 
with marvellous despatch. Though insurance in the South was 
swept away during the war, yet it is growing up again with great 
rapidity ; and statesmen and generals, whose names were famous 
in the war, preside over local companies or act as agents of New 
York or British corporations. 



04 AUGUSTA. [ch. x. 

A great revolution in agriculture is going forward in this 
district, and indeed throughout the whole of Georgia. The most 
lively discussion is kept up on such points as the preparation of 
land for crops, the selection of cotton seed, the use of fertilisers, 
the ini]iroveiuent and increase of live stock, and a more careful 
and varied cultivation than has hitherto been followed. There 
appears to be a strong feeling of the necessity of bringing intelli- 
gence and an active spirit of improvement to bear on the 
management of plantations, which, in ante-war times, were 
allowed to drag along with slave labour and overseers, as they 
had done for generations. Agricultural Societies have been formed 
in all parts of the State, and have been consolidated into a 
general institution, which holds two conventions every year for 
the discussion of agricultural questions, and for making arrange- 
ments for the holding of annual fairs or exhibitions of industry. 
Numerous periodicals are published here, and tliroughout the 
State, which are cliiefly devoted to the land interest, and discuss 
practical farming in all its liranches with much vigour and intel- 
ligence. Farmers and landholders constantly interchange their 
views and experience in these organs, and the actunl results 
obtained from the use of phosphate and other manures, or from 
Dickson's and other classes of cotton seed, and the advantages 
of various kinds of implements, or the payment of labour by 
wages or shares in the crops, are chronicled with business-like 
detail. The consequence is tliat the production of cotton per 
acre has been sensibly increased on the middle quality of land in 
Georgia, the soil of which in general has hitherto borne but an 
mr " "::• reputation. Half a bale per acre is becoming more of an 
average than it once was; two bales to the three acres is deemed 
a super-excellent result on the best land with guano or phos- 
phates, and a bale to the acre is said to be attainable when land, 
seed, manure, season, and mode of cultivation are all favourable, 
though I rather think there are very few instances of such a rate 
of production in Georgia. 

Of the vital importance of good selected seed there can be no 
doubt, and much of the inferior crop seen throughout the 
Atlantic States is probably to be ascribed to carelessness in this 
particular. Mr. Dickson's seed and its offspring are now exten- 
sively propagated throughout this and neighbouring States. 
But the best seed will rapidly deteriorate without careful and 
annual selection, and probably the greatest service rendered by 
Mr. Dickson and other agitators of this cardinal point is seen in 
the increased care which planters bestow on the quality of the 
seed annually set a])art from their own crops. One could pur- 
chase here two thousand bushels of a seed that appears to be 
peculiar in species, and is certainly remarkable in its fruitful- 
ness. The branches of the plant grow up more straight from the 



CH. X.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 65 

stem, and tlms cover less room in the drill than most other 
cotton, while the number of bolls produced is much above the 
average. On one branch I have counted ninety bolls, the great 
majority not only mature but picked of cotton. The grower 
began by purchasing as much seed as planted ten acres, the pro- 
duct of which gave him seed next year for the whole plantation. 
But, in order to keep up the quality, he carefully selects his 
seed each year by setting two trusty negroes to pick only 
from the stems bearing the greatest number of full, sound, and 
ripe bolls. 

In INIiddle Georgia, as w^ell as in South Carolina, much cotton 
is now groWn by white labour. This occurs chiefly on small 
farms, the proprietors of which were formerly unable to compete 
with the large combinations of slave labour, but are now raising 
a considerable amount of cotton. There are now also many 
small patches of cotton in the neighbourhood of towns and 
villages, where fruits and vegetables cannot be so well preserved 
from depredation by vagrant or destitute negroes as in former 
times. It is the outcome of cotton from these and other unusual 
quarters that has probably caused the estimates of crops since 
the war so habitually to fall short of actual results. Speculators, 
looking only at the diminution of negro labour, and at the state 
of the large plantations, the disorganization and diminished pro- 
ductiveness of which are very apparent, have formed erroneous 
conclusions. The large planters, who cannot command labour 
or capital to cultivate more than a section of their former cotton 
area, endeavour to sell or to farm out portions of their planta- 
tions; but this process can only be developed slowly in a 
country where there is so much land in this state and so few 
people. Yet some land is farmed out at a crop-rent of one-fourth 
the produce ; while a good many strangers come into this part 
of the State, buy land, and settle down to its cultivation. 
Estates bring from five to fifty dollars per acre, according to the 
quality of the land and the degree of improvement. The 
average purchase-money of an improved farm is from fifteen to 
twenty dollars per acre. The field negroes command from eight j 
to twelve and a half dollars a month, with rations, houses, and i 
fire ; women, from five to eight dollars. But the share system of 
paying labour prevails more than that of wages, at the rate of 
one-third of the crop with rations, or one-half without rations. 
"The negroes," says a very competent authority to me, "are 
worldng better and stealing less every year, and would be w^ell 
enough if the political agitators woiild only let them alone." 
The agitators complained of are " the carpet-baggers," who come 
into the South with very light equipment, for the sole purpose 
of getting themselves elected Eepresentatives by the negro vote, 
and of working themselves into some oface in v/hich they may 

F 



66 AUGUSTA. [cii. x. 

make rich, by not the most honest means, at the pn"'^'''' /expense. 
The tactics of these trading politicians are "^ pe some- 

times of the most wild and desperate description, it is said the 
negroes have been told from the stump that their former masters 
owe them wages from the date of INIr. Lincoln's proclamation, 
and that anything stolen from them now is but in fair liquida- 
tion of the account ! 

There is a prosperous cotton factory in Augusta, of no mean 
extent, which produces sheetings and shirtings, and other plain 
domestic fabrics. The hands are all white people, male and 
female, and differ little from factory operatives in the smaller 
towns of England or Scotland. The capital of the company is 
600,000 dollars, on which a profit of 5 per cent, a quarter, or 
20 per cent, per annum, has for some time been regularly 
realized and paid. The factory has ])oth steam and water 
power, and has established a basis of skilled labour that is 
not likely in a town of such considerable population to fail in 
the future. But the large profit made by this manufacturing 
concern of late years probably requires that the facts should be 
stated, that in its early history it was unfortunate to the share- 
holders, that it M^as sold to a new company at much less than it 
had cost, that it remained in undisturbed operation during the 
war, when the simplest domestic manufactures were in the 
highest request, and that the factory thus obtained a vantage 
ground which it has hitherto held with happy success. In such 
considerable towns as Augusta a large amount of labour, other- 
wise idle and unprofitable, may be utilised without impairing in 
any degree the main interest of agriculture, and this cotton 
factory proves with what advantage various manufactures may 
be prosecuted in the Southern States. 

The Legislature of Georgia has passed an Act to carry out the 
system. of free public schools, which has become, with certain 
local modifications, a fundamental law of the United States. 
Much attention is paid to the Act, and to the steps necessary 
to bring it into operation. 

Augusta passes on the Sabbath Day into as profound a tran- 
quillity as any town in England, or even in Scotland. The 
(jeorgian newspapers have adopted a plan of publication which 
can only have been suggested by a determination to observe 
wuth Hebrew precision a rest from labour during the day of 
twenty-four hours as defined throughout all the European and 
"Western worlds. They are issued on Sunday mornings as on 
other days of the week, because the labour essential to their 
production, though not to their distribution, can be completed 
by twelve o'clock on Saturday night. It has not occnrred to the 
Georgian newspaper people, that while the_ Western day begins 
and ends at twelve at midnight, the Hebrew and Eastern day 

/ 



CH. X.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 67 

begins and ends at six p.m. The consequence is that they give 
to the people their mass of secular print on Sabbath morning 
when they would rather not have it, and withhold it from them 
on Monday morning when it would be acceptable to all. I 
walked out on Sunday afternoon towards the country. Not a 
beer saloon or even a candy shop was open, scarcely a person 
walking about, and only a street car at long intervals passing 
along. At length I met a grave-looking man with a lively little 
girl in his hand, whom I congratulated on the delightful weather, 
to which he cheerfully responded. Was Augusta advancing 
rapidly ? lie did not think it was. I then ventured to ask him 
whether the churches in Augusta had an evening service, to 
which he replied that he really did not know ; that the onl}'- 
thing he knew was there was no Universalist Church, morning 
or evening, in Augusta. It was easy to perceive that my friend 
was himself a Universalist ; and that in a community of Pres- 
byterians, Episcoj)alians, Baptists, and IMethodists, he did not 
think it worth his while to know whether there were any even- 
ing diets of worship in Augusta, because there was not a 
Universalist Church ! Eeligious sects may be more numerous in 
the United States than in any other part of the Christian world, 
but there is nothing essentially distinctive in this little incident, 
the like of which might befall anywhere. 



F 2 



CHAPTER XL 

The country from Antrnsta to Sayannah.- — Alleged poorness of the Soil. — 
Population of the State. — Competition betwixt the Cotton Lands of Georgia 
and the Mississippi '' Bottom." — Probable effects of Good Farming. — 
"Want of Stock and Grass. — The Central Eailroad Company. 

[Savannah, Ga.— Nov. 20-23.] 

The distance from Augusta to Savamiali, the great seaport of 
Georgia, is 132 miles by rail, and is travelled, with freqnent 
stoppages for freight, in eight to nine hours. The aspect of the 
country gives an impression of a rather poor soil. There is the 
same wliite sandy surface as strikes one all the way down the 
Atlantic States. The crops of corn and cotton are not heavy, 
though often wonderfully fruity ; and the woods, which abound, 
are of lighter timber than in many other parts of the South. 
Pine prevails almost without a rival, and an extensive lumber 
trade is done in all the counties east and west of this line of 
railway. Burke County, on one side, is a large and compara- 
tively rich county, with its agriculture well developed ; and 
Emmanuel County, on the other, produces large quantities of 
good timber^ and has a social hfe more rude than is probably 
characteristic of the vast rural sj)aces of Georgia. The name 
attracted my attention to this county, which I thought must 
necessarily be the home of piety, virtue, and every Christian 
felicity. But these are fruits not the first to bloom in the 
American wilds. Yet Emmanuel County has an ideal in its 
name which in due time, with the spread of culture and popu- 
lation, it may approach. The old pine of the primeval forest 
serves so many purposes that it must be pronounced a most 
useful tree. But it is also, when prepared and polished, a very 
beautiful wood. Some of the finest panellings I have seen in 
the houses and railway cars are of pine. Though the forests still 
occupy an inordinate space in Georgia, yet in the most woody 
parts many fine tracts have been opened out, and many garden 
spots appear, in the course of a day's travel, where the wilder- 
ness really blossoms like the rose. The Georgian woods withal 
have often a very old-country aspect that startles one from the 
.recurring revcxies produced by a foreign land Their light and 



CH. XI.] STATE OF GEORGIA. C9 

varied character, the birds' nests of a departed summer hanging 
loosely among the rapidly disrobing branches, the wood-pigeons 
flying swiftly about, and the buzzards poising themselves far 
above the tojjmost boughs, under the mild autumnal sky, are very 
similar to what one may have seen among the copse-woods of 
England and Scotland ; and the squire's mansion, with its park 
and trees, its dovecot and rookeries, the squire himself with, 
his attendants and goodly villages with their ancient churclies 
and hostelries, are expected every moment to appear, thougli they 
never do. I do not think the railway from Augusta to Savannah,, 
while stopping often at depots and little stations in the woods, 
touches a single place of such considerable size as to form a small 
town or village. The landholders and farmers enjoy much s]iort 
when so inclined ; but they are lost in the woods, and probably 
do not consider the railway tracks the best ground for game. As 
for poachers, though the name is hardly known here, the field 
for them is boundless. One party stepped out from the train, 
rough and unkempt, wdtli guns and dogs, and blankets rolled in 
sail-cloth for nightly bivouac, who appeared to me marvellously 
like persons of this class. I should have been glad to daguerreotype 
them on the spot, so like were they and yet so unlike what I 
have seen elsewhere. But amidst all this wildness and solitude, 
aod apparent poorness of soil, it is cheering to see, wherever there 
are houses and close cultivation, how luxuriant the cotton-fields 
become, and what varied abundance is revealed. There are tine 
peach-orchards with rows of cotton-plants betwixt the trees, 
and vast fields of 60 to 100 acres of cotton and Indian corn, dis- 
playing much strength and fertility of soil and sun, and exciting 
but one regret, that so much cotton should be unpicked, and so 
little work going on, in these late and precious hours of one of the 
finest falls ever known even in this propitious clime. 
>^^ The soil of Georgia, save on the bottoms of the Savannah and 
other great rivers, is relatively poor ; but it has been made poorer 
by a superficial system of culture, that has left the subsoils 
untouched, and, after a few years of incessant cropping, has con- 
signed it to waste and barrenness in favour of newer clearings. 
The Georgian planters and farmers have hopped about from one 
part of their extensive territory to another, without settling down 
with a firm gTasp upon any ; and, while making inroads on the 
wilderness on one hand, have allowed it to grow up afresh on the 
other. The ease with which once ploughed land in Georgia 
becomes a pine barren is commensurate with the ditticulty with 
■which it was originally torn from the forest. With this picture 
constantly before their eyes, and only just beginning to vanish 
before a larger intelligence and deeper agricultural ideas, people 
hereabouts wonder that men should wear out their days on such 
poor soil when there is so much better and richer to be got in 



70 SAVANNAH. [cii. xi. 

otlier parts of tlic American continent; and many in CleorfTjia 
and along llic Atlantic wlopc arc; nowise loth to act upon this 
view of life. I have obsei'vcd trains of bullock vvatigons carrying 
farmers and their families i'rom Georgia and South Carolina west- 
ward to Texas and Arkansas ; and this movement is said to be 
much more extensive than could be su})])osed from cursory obser- 
vation. 80 tlial, whil(! tlu! cry of the Atlantic States is for more 
peoj)U\ lliey ai'e losing many of those they have got, and ])rogres3 
is thus made slow and uphill — every step i'orward being but 
too likely to be followed by one backward. The population of 
Georgia, which in 18G0 was 1,055,000, is now returned at 
1,200,000; but this increase, if real, must be almost wholly confin(;d 
to the towns. 'I'lu; tluKuy of ])oor soil, when followed out, raises 
the ([uestion whether the cultivation of cotton in such States as 
(leorgia niay not be doonu'd to disappear bef(jr(! the more pro- 
ductive iields of the Mississii)pi bottom and the South-West, and 
it has, no doubt, a severe competition to undergo from that vast 
region. It isdillicult for less than half a bale to the acre to stand 
against a bale to the acre, or even two bales to the three acres, 
raised with much less labour and expiuisc. ]^ut one can hardly 
believe that the great Southern districts on the Atlantic seaboard 
can quickly succund). They liave advantages of health, of proxi- 
mity to the great cotton markets both of America and Europe, 
and of greater convenience of settlement to people of capital, 
which must hel]) to sustain them. Nor can it be admitted that 
the soil of Georgia is poor in any but a relative sense. A line 
sandy-clay soil, of great depth, extremely friable and easily 
wrought, cannot be called poor. It is soil liberally responsive 
to the plough and to manure. Any a])proach, not to "high," 
but to moderately good farming, would be extremely ])rofitable ; 
and with deep ploughing, were the application of licpiid manure 
possible, which, it cannot well be for a long period, the results 
would be astonishing. When the ( Jeorgian agriculturists learn, as 
they are fast learning, to s])rcad their labour less about, and to 
devote themselves on enlightened principles to the steady develop- 
ment of manageable holdings, a meagre cultivation may not be 
extended over so large a superficies, but a better and more 
enduring impression will be made upon the land, of which 
enough has already been cleared for iifty or a hundred years 
to come. 

There is one sad defect that forces itself on attention 
everywhere. Very little live stock is seen on the plantations or 
about the farmhouses, while there is also a too apparent 
difficulty of grass. Only few cattle are visible, save the 
sturdy animals in yoke i>ulling patiently tlieir loads of tind)er 
and olher produce; and the i^is^i that do appear are generally 
in poor condition, with rough coats covering an anatomy of 



en. xi.J STATE OF lil'lOROlA. 71 

bones. The hogs roaming llirougli the woods are mostly 
lean, and, from tlie swiftness with which they run from 
one feeding-gronnd to another, seem to have to go through 
a heavy day's work for tlieir necessary rej)ast of acorns. The 
Southern .Stiites have not yet surmounted the indiffei'cmce to 
live stock tliat prevailed under the system of cultun; by slave 
labour. It is also to be remembered tliat nearly all the live 
stock on the ])lantations was consumed l)y the war, that many 
of the planters were left without a cow or an ox, with scarce a 
hog or even a chicken, and that since the war tljey have had to 
buy, breed; and recover every useful animal on their lands. It 
is the forgetl'uhiess of tliis fact that has led to an exaggerated 
estimate in Europe of the Ibrtunes made in cotton-planting 
from tlie high prices realized since the close of the war. The 
I)lanters had to resume operations with their farms in ruin, with 
fences to rebuild, with labour scarce, scattered, and disorganized, 
with everything to buy at prices three times higher than before 
the wai', and no money to buy with ; and it is certain 
that but for the high price of cotton two-thirds of the planta- 
tions could not have continued in cultivation after the iirst 
attempt in 186G. 

A curi(nis agricultural question might be raised as to whether 
the deficiency of live stock is the result of the proverbial 
difficulty of growing grass, or this itself is a natural con- 
seciuence of that. Of course, a planter who has little or no 
stock is not apt to ti'ouljle himself much about pasture or 
fodder. Nothing, at all events, is more striking in Georgia 
and other Atlantic States than the want of herbage. The 
heights and much of the level land are covered with woods, 
and at this season withered leaves are sti-ewn over the all but 
bare earth. On the cultivated sjjaces the Indian corn-stalks 
stand in solitary state out of long lines of white sand; while 
the tracts over which the plough has ceased to go are covered 
with pine shoots and weedy herbage, or browned like moor and 
heather by a brittle and "sticky" vegetation, which a forcing sun 
draws up from weak and frivolous roots into rank and grim 
luxuriance. Is all this inseparable from the soil and climate? — 
or is it a mere phase of Nature left to her own wiM caprice? 
Is the green grass, close and tender, always browsed Ijy cattle 
with avidity, and ever beautiful to human eye, the final polish, 
the last touch of perennial richness, which cultivation im- 
parts to the soil ? In some parts of Georgia what is called 
" wire-grass" 8]>rings up in the woods. The farmers burn it 
down in winter, and it comes out in spring, sweet and noui'ish- 
ing, and is much liked by cattle ; but the heat of summer 
makes it wiry and unchewable, and fit only for the burn- 
ing process of the winter. The "impossibility" of grass in 



72 SAVANNAH. [en. xi. 

Georgia is somewhat an enigma. One occasionally sees ver- 
dant i)atclies of clover, and in many parts the cotton rows, 
which the planter has innch to do to protect from grass all 
snunner, are covered in the fall with a long white fibre, that 
on being examined is found to be nothing less than the best 
kind of hay. The influence of soil and climate on any 
particular growth is not to be disputed; but when live stock 
on the Georgian farms has had time to increase and improve, 
and the farmers have begun to experience what an essential 
element it is of agricultural wealth and prosperity, grass in 
some form or other will probably be found to grow in 
Georgia. 

The Central Railroad, on which I have passed from Augusta 
to Savannah, was all but totally destroyed in the war by 
General Sherman during his famous plunge into the interior of 
Georgia, so far away from his base of operations as to astonish 
and alarm his friends. The feat was accomplished by organizing 
an inmiense force of cavalry, which, passing Augusta on the left, 
spread themselves over the centre of the State in such strong 
and numerous parties as to render effective resistance impossible. 
In the bewilderment of the Confederates that ensued, the 
cavalry fell upon the Central Eaih'oad, tore up the rails, and, 
gathering innnense piles of sleepers and timber from the woods, 
burnt, melted, and twisted them in the flames so as to render 
them useless. During the war Georgia had been a great source 
of supply to the Confederate armies, but Sherman's command of 
the railway from Atlanta to Chattanooga, and this destruction 
of the Central Eoad, cut ofl' the State like a dead branch from 
the Confederation, and contributed materially to the surrender 
that soon followed. The Centnd Company had been wise 
enough to reserve from their earnings a large fund, placed in 
London, and as soon as the war ended, they relaid their lines 
with English rails, and resumed a traflic that has been always 
large and profitable. This company is a banking as well as a 
railway company, and has just received from the Legislature a 
renewal of its banking privileges for a term of thirty years. 
Such conjunction of two very diflerent functions may seem 
anomalous in countries where abundance of capital has enabled 
the division of labour to be minutely developed, but no one who 
has marked on the spot the scarcity of money and exchange, 
not only in the interior, but in the great seaports of the 
Southern States, can wonder at the readiness of banking 
functions to gather round any solid interest or corporation, or 
doubt that the banking department of the Central Eailroad 
Company of Georgia has done good service to the State. All 
the older lines of railway in Georgia have been remarkably 
successful, iuid have paid larger dividends than most of the 



CH. XI.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 73 

leading British and Eurojiean railways. Since the war, the 
railway system in Georgia has been mvich extended, and new 
lines and connections are still being devised, and receive the 
State's endorsement of their bonds with an enterprise which 
is approaching, if it have not already passed, the limits of 
discretion. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The " Forest City." — Abundant demand for Labour. — Great increase of 
Cotton Exports. — Small proportion of Imports. — Disadvantages to 
Savannah of indirect Trade. — Eate of Wages. — Relative purchasing 
power of Money in England and the United States. — Conclusions of the 
British Consul. — State of Public Health. — Mortality of the Negroes. — 
Banking iu Savannah. — Sylvan features of the City. 

[Savannah, Ga. — Nov. 25.] 

The " Forest City" lias made progress since the close of tlie war, 
not only in trade and population, but also in healtbfulness and 
general improvement. Buried among trees — that give a novel 
and striking beauty to the city — and situated on a low delta of 
the Savannah Eiver, marshy in many places and liable to inva- 
sions of yellow fever, Savannah might be expected to be more 
than usually fatal to human life, and to present more than usual 
obstacles to the material and social prosperity which depends so 
essentially on the health, vigour, and increase of the population. 
But the force and elasticity of rapidly-expanding trade are 
carrying Savannah successfully over all impediments. /The 
liberation of the negroes, while thinning the number of field 
hands on the plantations, has thrown an ampler supply of labour 
into thriving towns and cities in the South than could have been 
obtained under the slave system. Savaunah has had no dithculty, 
of late years, in absorbing all the labour that has come to it, 
while stopping up with energy, at the same time, the sources of 
crime and disease. |^he Corporation has bought land beyond 
the municipal boundaries, the cultivation of rice has been 
pushed back into the interior, and a system of dry culture has 
been introduced all round the city. Though Savannah was 
occupied by Union troops after the surrender of the Confederate 
armies, yet the large number of independent commercial men in 
the city were resolved not to allow their municipal government 
to pass into the hands of political adventurers, and the Federal 
Government was wise enough to let them manage matters 
in their own way. The consequence is that confidence and con- 
tentment prevail in the community. A superior white police 
has been organized — quiet, intelligent, officer-like men, all of 



CH. xn.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 75 

those I have noticed — who not only exercise a wholesome moral 
influence on the people, but enforce with great care the removal 
of nuisances and the observance of cleanliness and order. 

The business of tlie port has made a remarkable advance 
since the close of the war, and the increase of shipments this 
year has exceeded all former precedent. The receipts of cotton 
at Savannah in the season of 1869 amounted to 361,285 bales, 
of which 351,005 were Upland, and 10,280 Sea Island cotton. 
In the season of 1870 the receipts have been 490,085 bales, of 
which 473,722 have been Upland, and 16,363 Sea Island — the 
increase in one year being thus 128,800 bales. Taking the total 
American crop at 3,150,000 bales, one-seventh of it has passed 
through the port of Savannah. Of the shipments of cotton the 
past season at this port — 

Uplajid. Sea Island. 

Great Britain . . .took 20(1,284 bales. 4,286 bales. 

France „ 41,;3r)3 „ 2,243 „ 

• Other Foreign ports ' . „ 17,265 „ — „ 

The Northern States . „ 214,188 „ 9,606 „ 

The money value of exports from Savannah during the past 
year is estimated at 30,221,576 dollars, of which 17 millions 
were taken by foreign, chiefly British, vessels. The total 
imports are valued at not more than 1,115,821 dols. gold. This 
immense 'disparity of imports and exports shows how little pro- 
gress has been made since the Avar in direct trade betwixt 
Europe and the Southern States. The tariff operates materially 
to shut out Britisli goods, and to move such foreign trade as is 
permitted to N^w York, whence goods are carried to the South 
more and more by railway, and less and less by American coast- 
ing vessels^/ This is one cause of that decline of the mercantile 
marine of tlie United States to which the citizens of the seaports 
are becoming so sensitively alive. The restriction of foreign trade 
by the tariff, and the domination acquired by New York over the 
whole American trade in imports, are attended with depressing 
effects on the Southern States. Their chief cities have but half a 
chance of prosperity. The great power of Savannah in drawing 
cotton to her wharves would be equally effective in drawing- 
foreign products in exchange, and distributing them over the 
same wide area as she drains of cotton ; but her service in this 
direction is excluded, while the service she does render is placed 
under disability. Only few vessels comparatively can come to her 
port save in ballast. Yet when the cotton season opens, the great 
demand for tonnage then known to arise brings a forest of masts 
to the river, and shipmasters crowd the brokers' offices seeking 
cargo at rates which will pay the expenses of their vessels 
both ways. The lines of railway traversing the interior from 
east to west are affected in much the same manner. Trains come 



76 SA FAKNJH. [cii. xii. 

to the seaport laden with cotton, but return over their long dis- 
tances with little or nothing. Were free and direct importation 
open, the railways would have traffic on both trips, would be more 
profitable, and coidd be more successfully extended. At pre- 
sent, of course, their rates are heavier than they would other- 
wise be, so that much of the cotton crop is carried to market 
alike by sea and by land under a disability. How many planters 
in this season of low price for their staple may feel the pinch 
of this narrow and distorted shoe ! All goods, both foreign 
and domestic, moreover, are much enhanced in price as well 
as deteriorated in quality to the Southern consumers, who 
are in this way made to bear a burden to which the whole 
State and Federal taxation, heavy as it now may be, is light in 
comparison. 

The large increase of receipts of cotton at Savannah during 
the past season is attributed partly to larger production per acre 
in Georgia through the use of fertilisers, but still more to the 
supplies received from other States, and in particular from 
Alabama, for which latter result the port is indebted to extended 
railway communications. A large amount of cotton that formerly 
went to Mobile, and some to New Orleans, now finds its way to 
Savannah. The prices realized at this port by planters compare 
favourably with those paid at Mobile and New Orleans. Wliile 
the Savannah cotton commands about the same rates abroad, 
the distance of ocean transport is so much shorter that a 
saving is effected in freight, interest, and insurance. 

Though the Sea Islands have reverted in many cases to their 
former owners, and are still held for cotton culture, yet it is gene- 
rally thought that the cultivation of the long staple will gradually 
diminish, owing to the low prices it has commanded of late 
years relatively to " upland." Egyptian cotton has taken the 
place of Sea Island to a great extent in Europe. The present 
season has been unusually propitious for the island crop, and 
the quality of the staple is better than last year. There have 
been no caterpillars, and everything has worked well for the 
plant. But the quantity of land planted has been considerably 
less, and consequently the crop is estimated to be from 2,000 to 
3,000 bales under that of last year. It has so far been sent but 
slowly to market. 

It is generally admitted that the negroes have worked more 
steadily this year than in any previous year of free labour, 
and planters have declared to me that they could not do without 
the " darkies " in the field, so sup enor _j)a:^j_Ji]iaj^c. Jt) any w Jute. 
labour that has yet been tried^ PuMic opinion is well re- 
conciled to free negro labour, and the main caust3 of dissatisfac- 
tion with the coloured ]iopulation is the too ready ear they lend 
to political agitators, and the blind persistency with which they 



en. XII.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 77 

ftre said to enable siicli persons to acquire predominance m tlj^"" 
•State Governments against the will of the white citizens.^rhe 
rate of wages in Savannah for unskilled labour, including such 
classes as waggoners, is Ih dollars a day of ten hours; and for 
skilled labour, such as that of printers, tinsmiths, and carpenters, 
from two to five dollars a day, according to skill and merit. 
This nominal high value of labour, however, is largely accounted 
for by dearness of goods ; or, in other words, the little way a 
■dollar goes in purchasing the necessaries and comforts of life^j 
An impression has been growing on me since my inquiries began 
that the American currency dollar is little more than equal in 
purchasing power to the shilling in England. Yet the American 
currency in all transactions of exchange with foreign countries is 
only 11 to 13 per cent, less value than gold. This state of things 
presses wnth extraordinary severity upon all classes in the United 
States who produce anything for export, and, if prolonged, must 
tend to shut American products out of the markets of the world. 
My impression of the relative purchasing power of money in 
England and money in the United States was probably based on 
too narrow a deduction ; but the British Consul here, by enter- 
ing into a minute analysis as regards such goods and necessaries 
only as artisans and Labourers require, has arrived at the con- 
clusion that the relative purchasing power of money here and 
in England is in the proportion of 45 to 100. Our Consuls in 
America, by the way, have had this question brought home 
rather sharply to themselves. Paid salaries of so many hundred 
pounds sterling per annum, for each of which they got seven or 
•eight dollars some years ago, they find that their pound sterling 
does not now bring them more than five dollars, while the dollar 
has not risen in practical value here in anything like the same 
proportion. But the hardsliip this entails on foreign residents 
falls equally, or rather doubly and trebly, on the producers of 
the great American staples, who pay for labour, goods, and 
materials on the. inflated scale of prices, and get back their 
returns on the strict standard of monetary exchange, thus lite- 
rally buying in the dearest and selling in the cheapest market. 
It might be some consolation for this anomaly if it could be 
shown that any class of people is really the better of it. Take, 
on the Consul's figures, as an example of prices, articles which 
all would expect to be superlatively cheap in the United States. 
Thus, beef of the country, lean and leathery, is in Savannah Id. 
per lb. ; Northern beef, prepared for such large cities as New 
York and Baltimore, and tolerably good, is Is. 2>d. per lb. ; mutton, 
1(1. per lb. ; bacon. Is. 1(/. to Is. 3d per lb. ; coffee, llrf. ; tea, 
4s. Id. ; salt butter, Is. \0d. ; potatoes, 7s. Qd. per bushel ; and 
the three-quarter pound loaf, id. 

Among the drawbacks of life and labour in Savannah and 



78 S A FAN N AH. " [en. xii. 

other "delta towns in similar latitudes must be placed the effects 
of climate, which great sanitary care can only mitigate, and 
which are hardly consistent with continuous toil. The average 
heat in summer, from 12 to 3 p.m., is about 90 degrees in the 
shade, and though the health of the town itself shows great im- 
provement of recent years, yet the suburbs and country are 
malarial, and in August, September, and October, malarial fevers 
abound, and are often fatal. The health statistics of the city are 
undoubtedly reassuring. The population is returned this year 
in round numbers at 29,000, of whom 19,000 are white and 
10,000 coloured people. The number of deaths among the 
whites in 1869 was 423, or 1 in 47-28, which is a low rate of 
mortality. The number of deaths among the negroes in the 
same year was 429, or 1 in 23*3, being, as in Charleston, fully 
double the rate of mortality among the white people. The dis- 
eases that cut off the negroes in greatest number were mias- 
matic, tubercular, nervous, and respiratory. The chief causes 
of the white mortality were the three first of these classes of 
disorders. The rate of infantile mortality in Savannah, on an 
average estimated over a period of sixteen years, is one-fourth of 
the total deaths, while in England it is as high as one-third. All 
these results, with the exception of the high rate of mortality 
among the negroes, are very satisfactory, and are the more remark- 
able inasmuch as the health of Savannah did not use to stand 
so welL In 1854, when the white population was only 12,468, 
the number of white deaths was 1,221, or 1 in 10'2, among 
which were 625 fatal cases of yellow fever. The blacks escaped 
that terrible scourge. Since 1858 there have been few cases of 
yellow fever in Savannah. In some subsequent years the mor- 
tality was also great, though in most cases the excess was due to 
exceptional causes. In 1864 and the following year (the last of the 
war), 845 deaths occurred in the military hospitals. But 1866 and 
the subsequent years till now have shown a steady progress 
towards the excellent health-condition that has been described, 
and that is largely to be attributed to the prosperity and good 
government of the city, and to the care and vigilance of the 
authorities in proscribing and extirpating the more flagrant causes 
of disease. Interments are extra-mural, and one of the ceme- 
teries is as beautiful as any institution of the kind can be. The 
supply of water is abundant and wholesome, one of the greatest 
blessings, since the supply of liquors is of questionable quality. 
The negroes in the Southern cities and towns, I fear, are falling 
into the habit of drinking inordinate quantities of bad whisky. 
The American people generally it must in fairness be ob- 
served, are a sober race. But while temperance is ever praise- 
worthy, and one of the greatest virtues of a free people, a 
little experience of American "drinks" somewhat- detracts from 



en. XII.] STATS OF GEORGIA. 79 

the merit of sobriety in this country. The distillers and liquor 
merchants, by a short-sighted policy in drugging and poisoning 
what they produce and sell, have rendered total abstinence 
almost a necessity of life. 

The banking capital of Savannah, which had grown up to 
eleven or twelve millions, was mostly lost during the war. The 
Central Eailroad Bank alone withstood the melting power of 
that seven-times heated furnace. The banking capital is now 
about three millions, quite inadequate to the expanded business 
of the city, but is being gradually increased. One or two new 
banks are just being established, one by Northern men who 
have come down for the purpose, and a very good speculation it 
seems to be as banking is conducted in the United States, espe- 
cially in the South. A banking company invests its capital in 
Federal bonds, deposits these at Wasliington under receipt of the 
Treasury, receives 90 per cent, of their value in national currency, 
and, while paid regidarly the full interest on its bonds, proceeds as 
a thoroughly authorized National Bank to lend its currency on 
mortgage, bills of lading, and other secure collaterals, at from 
15 to 18 per cent. It would be well if all Northern speculations 
in the South turned out as profitably as National Banks on these 
terms are sure to do. Several Northern firms commenced busi- 
ness in Savannah after the war as cotton merchants and brokers, 
but they have all " burst up," as the saying is when a firm either 
commits a bad bankruptcy and runs away, or honourably with- 
draws from business when disappointed in its hopes of profit. 
Cotton-broking is competed so keenly in Savannah as to astonish 
the older merchants. 

The growing commerce and well-being of the " Forest City " are, 
on' the whole, pretty solidly assured. Savannah appears, indeed, 
destined to become one of the great marts and centres of ]ife and 
activity in the South. Its common school system has already 
made satisfactory progress — the negroes and the Eoman Catholics 
being equally furnished with schools of their own, though under 
the same general superintendence as the schools of the other 
parts of the population. If the sylvan character of the town be 
consistent with public health, I can vouch for its charming and 
picturesque effect. It is very pleasant to saunter along Bull 
Street from end to end, passing from shops and stores to squares, 
churches, theatres, and elegant private mansions, the forest 
shadows deepening as the architecture becomes more choice ; to 
look on either side down the long wooded streets, two, three, 
four rows deep in trees, according to their importance in the 
general intersection ; to dwell for a little in admiration of a fine 
monument, glistening white as snow amidst tlie many colours of 
the autumn forest, erected in honour of Pulaski, who fell for the 
rights of Georgia in the War of Independence ; to stand with 



80 SAVANNAH. [ch. xii. 

curiosity before tropical plants that adorn the fronts of the 
houses, prominent among them the banana, covering the windows 
to the second floor with its great leaves, and suggesting ideas of 
some mammoth vegetable world ; and again to pass on, with new 
sources of attraction at every step, till the avenue debouclies on a 
small Bois de Boulogne, where an elaborate fountain plays, 
pointing the way to shady walks, in which the ladies prome- 
nade with their babies and nurses, and lovers meet to exchange 
vows of eternal devotion. The spot is cool and sequestered. 
One can imagine the delight of it when a hot and scorching sun 
drives people in terror from the open sky. The street-ways 
betwixt the trees are several inches deep in a blackish sand 
that muffles every sound of hoof or wheel. Savannah looks as 
if 30,000 people had gone out from town into a bowery forest 
glade, and, without disturbing its silence or its beauty, made 
summer-houses amidst its flowers and plants, and under the 
shade of its spreading trees. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

The Eailway System of Georgia. — Convenience of the Oars. — The " Captains " 
or Conductors. — Safety of Single-rail Lines. — Greater fertility of the 
SoU in the Interior. — Want of facilities of Branch Traffic. — Dilatory 
Cotton-picking. — General characteristics of the various Divisions of 
Georgia. 

[MiLLEN, Ga.—jSFov. 26.] 

The Central Eailroad from Savannah, to Macon connects at this 
point with the Augusta and Savannah road, which is also worked 
by the Central Company. Various branches and connections 
have greatly extended the communications of the Central. The 
Charleston and Savannah, which has again been opened, runs 
into its main line ; and it has a branch to MilledgeviUe, the 
former capital of the State, and Eatonton. At Macon it gets 
into connection with all the lines north, east, and west, and by 
extensions from Columbus, on the western border line of Georgia, 
is stretching out its communications to Mobile and Montgomery 
in Alabama. The business of this old-established company is 
managed with great ability and prudence ; and the same remark 
may equally be made of the Georgia Eailway, from Augusta to 
Atlanta, and its elongation to West Point, on the Alabama border. 
Both the Georgia and Central Eailroads are now within sight of 
direct communication across Alabama to Meridian in Mississippi, 
as well as to Mobile and New Orleans south. Another great 
system — the Atlantic and Gulf Eailway — is being gradually 
carried out under the energetic direction of Colonel John Screven, 
and opening up the southern section of the State, connecting 
Brunswick, an Atlantic seaport, with Macon north, with Albany 
and Bainbridge west, and with the Florida Eaih'oad and the 
Gulf of Mexico south. The Macon and Brunswick is a separate 
company, though part of the system. The South- Western and 
Muscogar Eailways run in a forked form from Macon to Colum- 
bus, and from Macon to Eufala in Alabama. The " Macoii and 
Western" to Atlanta is an essential link in the railway com- 
munication of the State north and south ; and the Western and 
Atlantic, or " State Eoad," as it is called from being the property 
of the State, carries this trunk system north to Chattanooga in 

G 



IIILLEN. [CH. XIII. 

80 ^ 

Eastern Tennessee. These remarks give a skeleton outline of 
tlie principal established lines of railroad in Georgia in active 
working condition, but new projects are brought forward in 
great number, and receive encouragement from the Legislature 
in the cession of State endorsement of their bonds to the extent 
of 8,000 to 15,000 dollars per mile. 

The railways at this season carry on an extensive traffic. In 
my progress hither from Savannah I met four great cotton 
trains, twenty trucks at least in each, passing down to the sea- 
port. The passenger trains seldom contain many people, except 
when some public gatherings are being held, or when immigrants 
and other through passengers happen to be numerous. The 
American cars are well adapted to the long distances over which 
passengers have usually to travel. The seats are ranged in small 
pews on either side, holding two persons each, with a free passage 
between, and at both ends there are doors giving communication 
with the other cars of the train. The opening and shutting and 
slamming of the doors, on a cold or wet day, while the train is 
m motion, form probably the only inconvenience of the arrange- 
ment ; and though one unaccustomed may feel somewhat dis- 
concerted on being set down in the same compartment with so 
many passengers, yet the Americans are by no means noisy 
when travelling, but for the most part sit as qviiet as at church. 
There is seldom more than one newspaper editor "on board." 
Smoking is prohibited in all but the front car, to which the 
smokers go as it suits them. By this subtle arrangement the 
railway companies have arrived at a practically dividing line 
betwixt iirst and second class passengers — negroes and otliers 
desiring to travel cheap, and smokers who must smoke all the 
time, being required to take their passage in the smoking car, 
and not allowed to leave it during the journey. The "ladies' 
car " is the choice part of the train, and is strictly guarded from 
male intruders at the principal passenger depots. But the 
regulation of the " ladies' car " is somewhat anomalous in prac- 
tice. The rule ^ being to exclude only such male persons as 
happen to be travelling alone, it often occurs that very gentle- 
manly people are turned away to an inferior place, while a much 
rougher set are freely admitted. Yet, when the train gets in 
motion, the free communication from one car to another soon 
redresses all inequalities. The railway conductor in America, 
or " captain," as he is called (just as the train itself and all 
about it are spoken of in nautical phrase), is a high official, 
of whom there is no counterpart in the old country. He 
collects the fares of the passengers ; in many cases apparently 
he keeps no account but the contents of his dollar bill pocket ; 
and, having some period of usance in the company's money, he 
trades a little betwixt the country and the city, and no doubt 



CH. xiii.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 83 

makes a good thing of that. The consequence is that the 
" captain " is generally an imposing personage, without band or 
button as a mark of office, but elaborately fixed up in gold 
jewellery, and not much disposed to give information when 
asked for it. Many of the stations on the American railways 
have too small a population, some being merely ends of roads 
for letting down and taking up country people, to siijjport a 
ticket office and a station-master ; but the habit of paying fares 
to the conductors has so grown, that even in the larger towns 
nearly as many pass into the cars without tickets as with them. 
The passenger traffic is therefore conducted too free from any 
effective check over the receipts to be quite satisfactory to the 
boards of directors. The lines in the south are broad-gauge and 
single-rail lines, and what with the moderate rate of speed, and 
the necessity of the going train moving into a side track at 
appointed stations till the coming one has arrived and passed 
on, collisions seem to be less frequent, and the traffic to be con- 
ducted with more security, than on double-rail and more heavily 
worked lines. One also finds the telegraph in active operation 
almost everywhere on the American railways. , 

The country, on the whole, considerably improves in fertility 
and settlement towards the interior of Georgia. On the road 
from Millen to Macon farming is carried on with more system ; 
the crops are generally good, sometimes luxuriant ; and there are 
marks of care and vigour in the work of cultivation round the 
farmhouses and in the fields. Cotton is brought down over 
twenty and thirty miles of country to some of the railway 
stations on drays, with four mules to eacji, and almost as many 
negroes, a few bales at a time, on tolerable roads. Common 
roads in Georgia are easily made, and more easily mended than 
one might suppose — the receptive sandy soil drying and harden- 
ing up after moderate rain very soon. The labour required, 
even with fair roads, in transporting cotton from the plantations 
to the railways, is enormous, and is often withdrawn from the 
fields when most needed. Were the railway companies to turn 
their attention to branch communication, and put on a "road 
engine" and train of waggons at every principal depot, great 
advantage would accrue to themselves as well as to the planters 
and the cotton trade. The backwardness of picking, while 
negroes and mules are toiling along the country roads with 
handfuls of cotton, is everywhere observable. Whole fields 
along this route, even at this date, are white as snow with 
cotton wool, which only the extraordinary fineness of the 
season, liable to break up at any moment, has saved from total 
loss. The frost, which appeared for the first time ten or twelve 
days ago, has come more or less at intervals since. Though a 
"kiUiug frost," probably, in the cotton telegrams, it has con- 

G 2 



8-1 MILLEN. [cH. xiii. 

sisted hitherto of tlio slightest bite of cold imaginahlo, followed 
hy days of warmth and brightness equal to English siumncr, 
and with neither wind nor rain (if any accoiuit. The woods 
begin to show its elfect in diversihed change of hue ; and the 
cotton plant not only shows it in a browner shade, but no doubt 
also feels it in a retardation of the latest crop of bolls. But 
what signifies the lengthening of the crop, if even the first 
and second sheds of fruit have not been gathered ? Since the 
M'ar picking has seldom been finished till February, and, besides 
causing much deterioration of cotton, has cut largely into the 
time anil labour re([uired to prepare the ensuing crop. Planters 
fret and worry under this state of things morp, ,of course, than 
anybody else, but it is an evil that injures all. j/The negroes get 
up difficulties of wages, and fall into difticulties of debt and 
liens on their s^hare of the crop. The fall of price is even a 
difficulty to the negro, for, with the most singular inversion of 
reason, he argues that when cotton is cheap it is not worth 
while picking it — as if the only way to get the better of the 
low price of any crop were not to make the quantity of it as 
large as possible. The negroes have some very peculiar traits 
of character, and are more like children than grown people. 
Served with the stipulated rations for a week, they will some- 
times eat them up in three days, and fall into debt to their 
employers and their merchants for more than enough. Yet the 
prevailing remark is that they are improving. The courts in 
Georgia punish them for stealing, and as the resources of theft 
and idleness are closed against them, they begin to feel they 
must work to live. Such are some of the difficulties of the 
negroes on the land ; but it must be added that the negroes on 
the land are not nearly so many as the land recpiires. There is 
an absolute scarcity of labour for the larger plantations under 
culture. 

IVIiddle Georgia and the whole AVestern border from north to 
south form the finest and richest agricultural region of the State. 
These districts are comparatively well settled, studded with pro- 
ductive farms, and have towns of considerable population and 
nianutiictures. In the south-west there are Albany, Columbus, 
Thomaston, where cotton and woollen fabrics are manufactured 
with success ; in the north-west there are Atlanta, Marietta, 
Eome, Dalton, and other towns which are growing in population 
and in traffic; while INlacon and Augusta may be said to ])reside 
over IVIiddle Georgia, and are at once a result and a. source of the 
superior agricultural value and higher civilization of that section. 
While the cash value of farms in the various counties of Middle 
and Western Georgia is estimated by millions, in the other 
parts of the State it is more commonly estimated in thousands. 
The uorth-eastern counties of Upper Georgia are mountainous, 



cii. xiii.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 85 

and are imprognated along the river bottoms witli gold deposits, 
whicli were the cause of a great excitement forty years ago tliat 
has broken out at intervals ever since. The deposits, after their 
first discovery, were deemed so rich that the land was surveyed, 
and distributed by lottery in forty-acre sections to all who had 
been three years citizens of the State, There were some prizes, 
but many blanks. Yet gold-digging continues to be prosecuted 
among the mountains of Georgia. Copper ore has also been 
extracted in large quantity. The southern counties of Georgia 
are the poorest and most thinly peopled. The soil is more sandy, 
and all but wholly covered with pine forests, on which the 
lumbermen have hitherto made but small impression. Land in 
this section of the State is so extremely cheap as to be almost 
incredible. I*urchases have been made at ten cents an acre. Any 
one ambitious of territorial jjossession might with little money 
become lord of a county or two, full of wood, and, in the event 
of the Baltic forests giving out, might be confessed in some 
generation or other to have made a splendid investment. At the 
same time it is very dithcult to pronounce in this climiite what 
is poor and worthless land for agricultural purposes. The very 
different degrees of value of land seem to depend as much on 
the tract which settlement and population have taken as on the 
intrinsic qualities of the soil. I have heard it said that the 
sandy soil of these poor and sparsely-peopled counties, once 
cleared, would grow long-staple cotton as good as that of the Sea 
Islands, the season is so much longer than in more northern 
cotton States. The best crop of cotton I have met with in 
Georgia is that of a recent settler, who, on what was deemed 
poor land, has, by close attention and farmyard manuring, raised 
nine bales from thirteen acres. 

The country from Macon to Atlanta, in the north-west of 
Georgia, is a fine rolling upland, well cleared, with li-inges of 
light forest tindjer, in which oaks, hickory, and other varieties of 
tree, as well as the ever-constant pine, are abundant, and where 
freestone is quarried. The soil assumes a redder colour than at 
Macon and southward. There is a rich growth of cotton, the 
picking of which is well up to the mark. Good farming seems 
well understood in most of this district. The homeliness of the 
scenery, its gentle hill and dale, its wide sweeps of cultivated 
land up to the margin of the forest belts, which twine themselves 
across the heights and skirt the valleys, are peculiarly striking. 
A more pretty and interesting country than much of it one could 
hardly deske to sec. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Central position of Macon. — Command of the Railway System. — Great 
dev^elopment of Railway Enterprise. — Success of the Old Lines. — State 
Endorsement of Railway Bonds. — Tlie system of Railway Financing. — 
Does State Endorsement add to the Security of a First-Mortgage Bond ? 
— Macon Cotton Manufactures. 

[Macon, Ga.— Nov. 27-28.] 

The position of Macon, in the heart of Middle Georgia, where all 
the railways — north, south, east, and west — converge as to a 
common centre, renders it probably the most important and 
most promising inland town of this lively and enterprising 
State. It receives from 90,000 to 100,000 bales of cotton 
annually, and the drafts of planters in the surrounding country 
are honoured eagerly by merchants and warehousemen to 
the extent of their resources, with the view of fostering and 
increasing the importance of the town as a mart for cotton. The 
railway lines which meet and radiate from Macon would alone 
be sufficient to give a powerful and permanent impulse to its trade 
and industry. Extensive railway workshops have been esta- 
blished, and have gathered round them a numerous body of 
mechanics. A number of the railway directors and capitalists, 
who are the life and brain of the great system of communication 
throughout the State, reside in Macon, and act together with 
much energy and judgment. The various depots, filled with 
goods and produce in transit, give an air of business and traffic 
to the to\sTi beyond what one would expect from its general 
development. Macon is not so compact or so well built as 
Augusta, but, with a shrewd head on its shoulders, it has also its 
fingers on a vast network of communication from all parts of the 
interior and extremities of the State, that will tend every year 
to increase its means of wealth and employment. 

The railway interest, next to the agricultural interest, which 
is the foundation of all, is at present by much the largest and 
most prominent interest of Georgia. It is the one interest 
throughout all the South which, though gi-eatly worn and wrecked 
by the war, stood erect and vital amidst the general ruin, and 
that seemed not only able to take care of itself, but to give a 



CH. XIV.] STJTE OF GEORGIA. 87 

lielpiug-liand to the general recuperation of the various States. 
Hence the great development of railway enterprise in tlie South 
since the close of the war. Georgia has probably done more to 
restore and extend the connections of its old lines, and to build up 
new railways, than any of the other Southern States. The success 
which had attended its railways in the ante-war times, and the 
strength which tliey displayed amidst universal weakness when 
the war had ended, is no doubt one reason of the almost passionate 
activity of the State in this direction during the last four or five 
years. The Georgians had come to believe in railways at a crisis 
when faith in any other material interest had almost departed. 
The Georgia Eailroad from Augusta to Atlanta had before the 
war repaid in dividends its whole capital and 50 per cent, more, 
and remained a clear and going road to its subscribers when the 
war had passed away. This company has taken powers to 
increase its capital stock to five million dollars, to rebuild depots 
and shops, and replace rolling stock and rails. The Atlanta and 
West Point, which was an extension of the Georgia from Atlanta 
to the Alabama border, paid 7 per cent, interest from the 
day when the money w\as paid till the line was opened for traffic, 
after which it paid 8 per cent. ; and in a few years the 
reserve had accumulated so much that a bonus of 100 per cent, 
was declared to the stockholders in the form of new stock in that 
proportion — in other words, every 100 dollars of stock became 
200 ; and yet on the capital, as thus doubled, a dividend of 8 
per cent, has been paid from year to year, and no less from all 
appearance is ever likely to be paid notwithstanding the com- 
petition to which the road has been or may be subjected. The 
Central Eailroad has regularly paid large dividends to its sub- 
scribers — never less, I believe, than 8 to 10 per cent. The State 
Eoad from Atlanta to Chattanooga has also a large, steady, and 
prosperous traffic, which was wont to replenish the treasury of the 
State, and has only ceased to be profitable under the exoteric and 
transitionary rule of recent years. The management of the " State 
Eoad " is a constant topic of attack and defence, and of banter 
not always of the pleasant sort, betwixt the local Conservatives 
and the party sustained in power by the " Eeconstruction " policy 
of the North. The Governor and the Legislature, acknowledging 
the justice of the complaints made against this department of 
the administration, have this year passed an Act to authorize a 
lease of the railway to any competent private company for a 
term of twenty years. The lessees are required to pay not less 
than 25,000 dollars a month into the State treasury, taking over 
the road and its appurtenances as they stand, and returning them 
in like condition at the end of the period of lease. There would 
appear from the terms of this Act to be no decrease of confidence 
in the substantial resources of the " State Eoad," and its pros- 



88 MACON. [cH. xiy. 

pects of remuneration to the revenue of the State, at the expense 
of which it has been built and maintained. This confidence I 
hear echoed on all sides. The railway antecedents of Georgia 
have thus been peculiarly favourable. Wliether under the great 
movement of railway extension in progress its future experience 
will be equally favourable, depends on many conditions and 
considerations not easy at present to resolve. The old Georgian 
lines of railroad were urgently needed ; they had a traffic ready 
for them ; they tapped, as it were, the virgin soil of communica- 
tion in the State ; and they were made, step by step, when labour 
and commodities were cheap, with cash subscribed, and ready 
for every outlay on the neatest ready-money terms. The results 
were, economy in the cost of construction, an abounding traffic 
as soon as they w^ere constructed, and ample dividends on the 
capital of the companies when brought into operation. The new 
railway era in this and other States of the South cannot be sup- 
posed to present the same advantageous conditions. 

Since it was impossible to raise within the State itself the 
money necessary to make new railways, the expedient adopted 
has been not only to give large borrowing powers by Act 
of the Legislature to any projector or company of projectors 
wdio have proposed to make a railroad, but also to give the 
State's endorsement of the bonds on which the money is bor- 
rowed. The State generally endorses bonds to the amount of 
15,000 dollars per mile. The cost of building a railroad in 
Georgia, I am informed on competent authority, is from 18,000 
to 30,000 dollars a mile, so that on most lines there would 
appear to be a considerable margin beyond the amount of State 
endorsement, which must be covered by the capital of the stock- 
holders. Still, the money borrowed on the State security bears 
an mordiuate proportion to the capital invested b}'" the com- 
panies, and many do net hesitate to say that in some instances 
the roads are made almost wholly from the proceeds of the 
mortgage bonds. The Legislature of Georgia has passed an Act 
which prohibits the Governor or any other officer of State from 
endorsing the bonds of any railroad " imtil an amount equal to 
the amount of bonds for which the guarantee of the State is 
applied for has in good faith been first invested, and actually 
paid in and expended, by the owners or stockholders of the 
road." In the plain meaning of words, the Act imposes a con- 
dition that the money borrowed under the State guarantee for 
railway purposes shall never exceed the paid-up capital of the 
companies ; wdiich, if strictly observed, would be alike good for 
the State, the bondholders, and the ultimate profit of the rail- 
road projectors and companies tliemselves. If it should have 
the effect of delaying some of the less urgent projects, and 
spreading the construction over a longer period of time, nothing 



CH. XIV.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 89 

woiild be lost, and probably much advantage be ultimately 
gained. The number of railways projected in Georgia is so 
great as to remind one of periods of railway mania elsewhere of 
unfortunate memory. The Legislature this year has authorized 
the endorsement of the bonds of no fewer than thirty-two 
railroad companies. The endorsement is to be to the amount in 
some cases of 12,000 dollars and in others of 15,000 dollars a 
mile. Many of the projects, of course, are only branches or 
elongations of existing lines from one Georgian town to another ; 
but some are extensive schemes, such as the Atlanta and Blue 
Eidge, which aims at being a great competing through-line to 
the North. One wonders where all the money is to come from 
to carry out so many public works at once, and the expectation 
that the profits on the plantations wdl seek investment in rail- 
ways does not seem to be well founded as an immediate resource, 
when one considers how much the planters have to do in stock- 
ing, fencing, and improving their farms, and getting their affairs 
into such a train as to enable them to make any profit at all. 
But there can be no doubt of the immense utility of railways to 
the agricultural population in the absence of good common roads 
to market, or of the sacrifices the people are prepared to make 
in order to attain a railway system reaching and penetrating 
almost every county in the State. The most ambitious " air- 
line " through to the great railroads running North and West 
is always so contrived as to open up new districts within the 
State itself, and to give an impulse to internal improvement. 
The State only follows the general bent in helping forward the 
formation of railways by all legitimate means : and the repre- 
sentatives, as they pass bill after bill, pledging, under conditions, 
the security of the State, may probably think that to authorize 
endorsation is one thing and to endorse is another, and that by 
a natural process of selection a few only of the many projects 
will be pushed forward for the present. 

Southern railway bonds bearing interest of 8 per cent, per 
annum have already been taken up to a large amount, and, 
under proper conditions, should be as solid a security as this or 
any country can offer. But they do not sell very favourably 
when issued, and they do not sustain well their original price. 
There is something faulty in the whole system of finance pur- 
sued. The guarantee of the State has a large sound ; but it is 
doubtful whether, in present circumstances, it contributes essen- 
tially to the value of the bonds. The State debt of Georgia, as 
well as other Southern States, was inconsiderable at the close of 
the war, but it has been rapidly increased since, for other pur- 
poses as well as railways, and, with its natural result of increased 
taxation, forms a constant theme of bitter political discussion 
betwixt the Eadical-Negro Governments and the white people 



90 MACON. [cH. XIV. 

of the States. A curious incident has just occurred here, which 
serves to illustrate the feud that prevails in regard to the 
State finances. Governor Bullock proceeded to New York some 
days ago, with the view of negotiating the sale of some amount 
of State bonds, and was immediately followed by the son of the 
Treasurer of the State, who reported to the New York banking 
houses that the bonds which the Governor wished to sell were 
informal and illegal, that they had not been registered in the 
terms of the Act, and that no transactions upon them would be 
binding on the State of Georgia. The Governor has written a 
note to Atlanta, to the effect that the Treasurer's son has been 
injuring the credit of the State, and the inference is that his 
financial mission to the North will be rendered of no avail. 
Such disclosures as these, commented upon with the utmost 
asperity by the local press, increase the suspicion of the Southern 
people as to the integrity with which their affairs are adminis- 
tered, and one of the first steps of the Conservative- Democrat 
Government, for which the elections are gradually paving the 
way, will probably be to institute a strict inquiry into the 
financial proceedings of their predecessors in office. It is un- 
desirable that such a substantial commercial interest as railroads 
should be embroiled in suspicions and investigations of this 
description, and the State guarantee, wdiatever its advantages to 
the issuers and the holders of the bonds, has obviously, its dis- 
advantages also. Its disadvantages, indeed, are more apparent 
than its advantages. The State engages, in the event of failure 
on the part of the stockholders, to pay the interest and principal 
of the bonds. When called upon to fulfil this engagement, the 
State will proceed to sell, lease, or work the road, and charge 
itself with the liability to the bondholders. But this is only 
what the bondholders would have immediate power to do them- 
selves were there no State guarantee or intervention in the 
matter. The main security of railway bondholders is that the 
road be one well devised for traffic and for developing traffic, 
and that it be conducted under the control of the substantial 
business people of the country through which it operates, who, 
in virtue of their subscribed capital and commercial interests, 
have the strongest motive to provide for its economical construc- 
tion and successful management. Where these conditions are 
found — and where may they not be found in these great arid 
rising States ? — the first mortgage railway bond issued here is as 
good a security as it can well be made. There are supposable 
cases in which the superadded State guarantee might save the 
bondholders trouble ; but there are equally supposable cases, on 
the other hand, in which it might give them a little of that com- 
modity too. 

English rails are in favour in Georgia, aud^ notwithstanding 



CH. XIV.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 91 

the high tariff duty, are sometimes bought to a large amount 
on a gold basis, delivered at Savannah. The old lines, I 
believe, will now re-lay their roads, as required, with the best 
steel rails. 

Macon, like Augusta, has a cotton factory, that has long 
been a successful element in the industry of the town. The 
goods manufactured are 36-inch shirtings, one lb, to the three 
yards, and 30-irich shirtings, four ounces to the yard. The 
former bring 12-| and the latter 10^ cents per yard. I found 
the factory working cotton at 12^ to 13 cents per lb. The 
capital of the company is 128,000 dollars, on which the divi- 
dend usually paid is 10 per cent., though sometimes as much as 
21 per cent, has been divided ; and a surplus fund of 50,000 
dollars has been accumulated. This factory has only 5,240 
spindles, and works at less advantage than the Augusta factory, 
which has more extensive and newer machinery. The number 
of hands employed in the Macon factory is 120. They are all 
whites. The wages paid to women are 24 to 25 dollars a month, 
and to boys 13 dollars a month. Another cotton factory is 
about to be opened in an extensive building that was erected 
during the war for a Confederate arsenal. It is to have 15,000 
spindles, and a 350-horse-power engine. A very general desire 
is evinced in all parts of the country for the establishment of 
cotton factories, but the Southern people seem to fall into a 
series of mistakes on this point. Their ideas of manufacturing 
run in too narrow a groove. The small factory in Macon has to 
beat up a good deal for a market for its goods, and the difference 
in price of cotton here and in New York — two to three cents 
per lb. — may soon be more than lost in the difficulty and ex- 
pense of selling the goods when manufactured. There are many 
branches of manufacture which, both in the towms and country 
parts of the South, might be prosecuted with probably greater 
advantage tlian simple cotton fabrics. Variety of enterprise is 
eminently desirable. The cotton factories at Columbus are pro- 
ducing cotton blankets, which are a novelty, are well spoken of 
by those wdio have used them, and may be capable of introduc- 
tion into distant markets ; but the manufacture of sheetings and 
shirtings may soon be greatly overdone. It is the North which 
the South has always in view when it sighs for more and more 
cotton factories. The people say. Why should we pay Massa- 
chusetts a protected and monopoly price for cotton goods, when 
we grow the raw material and may make them for ourselves ? 
The South, as Mr. Gladstone once allowed himself to say, is 
thus, after all, a distinct nation in the United States^ but the 
North has to thank, not Mr. Jeff. Davis, but itself, for this dis- 
tinction, in sacrificing the interests of the great mass of the 
population in other sections of the Union to a fatly protected 



92 MACON. [en. xiv, 

class of Northern manufacturers. Disaffection is fostered South 
and West hy this hliud and licartless policy. 

The best paid chiss of Avorking people in IVIacon are mechanics, 
who receive from 4| to 6 dollars a day ; but it is one of the 
dra-svbacks on the supposed high wages of labour in America 
that a mechanic, with a wife and family, has to pay as much 
as 25 dollars a month for a house or cabin of four rooms. 

INIaeon is finely situated on the side of a sandy hill, broken 
into wide and sloping hollows that stretch out in many tine 
avenues to be, and are overlooked by eminences that have 
already become the sites of spacious and elegant private resi- 
dences. The country round is hilly and densely wooded. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Extraordinary rise of Atlanta from the ashes of the War. — The H. I. 
Kiriiljull House. — Interview with a " Drummer" of the latest Patents. — 
The "Asses' Bridge." — The Hotel System. — Population of Atlanta. — 
Removal of tlie State Capital. — Orifrin of the Kimball House Specula- 
tion. — New Executive Mansion. — An Education Meeting. — Costume. — 
Peaches. — The Granite Mountain. — Round Cartersville. — Need of a 
Geological Survey of Northern Georgia. 

[Atlanta, Ga. — Nov. 29-30 ; Cartersville— Dec. 1.] 

I AitPJVED in Atlanta under a shower of rain, the first I had 
seen in a sojourn of nearly two months in tlie Soutliern States. 
It was really a downfall worth speaking of, enough to make a 
Mark Tapley feel jolly. " It never rains but it pours" in Atlanta. 
Sherman poured such a shower of fire upon it as almost swept 
it from the face of the surrounding wilderness. It is now rising 
up a grander, fairer, and more ambitious town than before. But 
an architectural chaos reigns in the meanwhile over all its centre 
and circumference. The railway from Macon, after gliding 
through a sulmrb of cabins and passing a military bari'acks, 
begins to toll its bell and perform a sort of funereal procession 
amidst the debris of newly-built houses and the ruins of old 
ones, jjieces of streets to which there is no visible entrance, 
and deepening files of cars and trucks from which there is 
no imaginable exit, finally drawing up more apparently from 
the impossibility of moving backward or forward than from 
the fact of having arrived anywhere. The various rail- 
roads wl)ich meet at tliis crowded point do not go to the 
town; the town is gatliering in thick and hot haste about 
the railways. A general depot is being built, but, like every- 
thing else in Atlanta, it is unfinished ; and on the arrival of a 
train under rain the passengers are put down in the mud, to be 
there screamed at Ijy steam-engines and high-pressure negroes, 
scared by the tolling of bells, and barricaded on every side by 
trains of cars, bales of cotton, boxes of merchandise, gable-ends 
of houses, and all sorts of building materials. " Is there any 
hotel in this city of Babel ? " I cried out, and was immediately 
told Atlanta had the biggest tiling of the kind in creation. 



94 ATLANTA. [en. xv. 

"Where is it?" "There, sare; I take you" — said a darkey, 
who had already marked me for his own — " there it is," pointing 
to a really magnificent edifice, which on the side next, us seemed 
to have everything but windows — an edifice forming nearly two 
streets of Atlanta— so large, indeed, that it seemed impossible to 
judge where the entrance might be. " The H. I. Kimball House, 
sir. Have you nary heerd of the H. I. ? " said a short, thick man, 
all beard and no whiskers. I confessed that the Atlanta hiero- 
glyphics were unknown to me, whereupon he put into my hand 
a printed paper, which, as I was now scaling a heavy intrench- 
ment of brick and mortar, flanked by Avet ditches of no mean 
account, I put into my pocket to cull some particulars from by 
and by. The inhabited front of the " H. I." was carried without 
loss of any kind, but not without difficulties that evoked sus- 
picions and objurgations of a serio-comic kind, wherein how 
much I was deceived will appear from a fact or two. The hall 
or vestibule of the Kimball House is as big as a church, and 
prayer-meetings of a certain kind, I believe, are held in it 
sometimes. This hall is open almost to the roof of the build- 
ing, with tier upon tier of galleries communicating with the 
various floors of the hotel, and affording the guests an oppor- 
tunity of looking down on all that passes below. A gaselier 
drops from the higher stories over the hall, of such magni- 
tude and brightness as might grace any opera-house in the 
largest cities of the world. The whole hotel is brilliantly lighted 
with gas. I was hoisted to my room in a steam-power elevator, 
surpassing in lubricity of motion the creaky and occasionally 
foot-crushing machine of the great " Continental " in Phila- 
delphia, so dear to all the " commercials " of the Northern 
States. The bigger the hotels of America become, the greater 
nuisance they are generally found to be, but the Kimball House 
at Atlanta, to whomsoever it may prove a mistake, will be no 
mistake to any traveller in the upper regions of Georgia who 
may choose to make it his abode. 

The rain having passed away, the first thought that occurred 
was to walk round what had now for the time become '' my 
hotel ; " but this I was never able to do. I found myself, in 
various attempts, always going away from it and always coming 
back to it. Parts of it seemed everywhere, and other objects 
began to distract my attention from its probable lines of circum- 
vallation. Atlanta has several great business houses in the dry 
goods, hardware, grocery, and confectionery lines, with fine 
shops on the street for retail business, and upper floors for 
wholesale trade. One receives at every step a lively impression 
of the great powder residing somewhere in the United States of 
filling the most distant and unpromising places with wares and 
traffickers of all kinds. Stores full of " Northern notions," 



CH. XV.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 9') 

New York oyster saloons, and " drummers " of the latest patents 
out at Washington, are seen on both sides (when they have two 
sides) of the streets of Atlanta. One man showed me a more 
perfect kerosene oil or spirit lamp than I had seen or imagined. 
He lighted three or four of them, and flinging them heedlessly 
on the floor to burn at leisure in various corners of the store, 
instantly pulled out a patent washing-machine which is to 
drive everything else out of the market. He was about to 
show me a marvellous pot-hook with cradle appendages for 
weighing babies, when, notwithstanding my deeply awakened 
interest, I was ol^liged to come away. The streets of Atlanta 
are not yet lighted with gas, but the patentee came with me to 
the door, and sprung an immense spirit torch which threw 
a blaze of light into the gloom, revealmg, in the distance, of 
course, a wing of the Great Hotel. It is difficult for a guest of 
the H. I. to lose himself in Atlanta, but it is easy for any one 
to be abruptly stopped by some impassable barrier, or danger- 
ously inveigled in the network of railway tracks. The railways 
pass along a narrow defile, and cut Atlanta for the present in 
two. I found myself standing on one occasion at this Asses' 
Bridge, beside a grave, elderly man, who was waiting, like myself, 
for an opening betwixt the long trains that blocked the way. 
As one moved on, another close behind was sure to give a snort 
and jolt along too ; and when the down track was a little clear, 
the tolling bell of a train on the up track gave note of warning 
to adventurous citizens. I ventured to remark to my patient 
friend that it was strange the people of Atlanta could bear such 
an obstruction in the heart of the town. "What would you 
have them do ? " he asked me. " Petition, of course ; oppose the 
railway bills, overturn a Governor or two, if necessary ; and insist 
on right of way." " Friend, you are a stranger — I guess the 
railways were here before the people of Atlanta," was his reply ; 
and what he told me I recognized at once to be true. The rail- 
ways were the beginning and the end of Atlanta in the old times, 
and the new city rising up around the place where it was ere- 
while convenient for the railway engine to be fed with wood and 
water has not yet had time to adjust all its relations. One of 
the difficulties of the present chaotic stage of Atlanta is that 
few people in it know anybody else. I had an introduction to 
a gentleman of some fame, whom I casually met in Macon just 
as he was going to the train for Atlanta. He had only time to 
say, " Be sure to hunt mc iip when you come to Atlanta." I did 
not take up the whole meaning of the phrase at the time, but 
I learned it afterwards. Yet when all ordinary means of hunt- 
ing up people in Atlanta fail, there is one resource which, if you 
are a. guest of the H. I., may be reverted to with some confidence. 
Begin and end your inquiries at the hotel, and ten to one you 



96 ATLANTA. [ch. xv. 

find that yaii have been breakfasting, dining, and supping with 
the people you want all the time. The secret of the " big hotels " 
in America is that they are designed in a very subordinate 
degree for travellers, and that they place their main chance on 
town boarders, to whose convenience they conform all their 
arrangements. The system of boarding in hotels prevails largely 
in the cities of the North, and I am sorry to note its rapid in- 
troduction into the Southern States. The ladies, I think, when 
the first reluctance has been conquered, rather like the relief 
from domestic cares and the mock splendour of living in a grand 
hotel. Yet an American wife follows Paterfamilias into the 
public dining-room with a subdued sort of air ; and more melan- 
choly still, at least to me, are the children who close up the 
train with pale faces and precocious eyes, sit down at table 
among a crowd of sharp people, and are served by troops of 
obsequious waiters. The system may have its origin in Eepub- 
lican ideas carried to an anti-social and burlesque extreme ; but 
it is not the mould of life in which Eepublics are made or may 
best be preserved, and one cannot but reflect with some misgiving 
what a country America may be when a generation has arisen to 
whom the sweetest and most potent word in the English language, 
" home," has neither present meaning nor past association. 

Atlanta is already quite a large place. Its population is given, 
in the usual round numbers of the census enumerators, at 28,000 
to 29,000. The vague results of the present decennial census in 
the United States are somewhat perplexing, but they have more 
excuse in a town like Atlanta than in many other places ; for if 
a census, instead of being taken in a night, be spread over the 
greater part of a year, how is it possible to state with precision 
the population of a city to which a hundred is added to-day, and 
probably half a thousand may be added to-morrow ? I am in- 
formed, on the best authority, that of the 28,000 to 29,000 souls 
in Atlanta, the whites are in the proportion of 15 to 13 coloured. 
That the coloured people should be so numerous in a practically 
new town proves the large flux of negroes from country to town 
since the w^ar. The marvel is how so large a population, white 
or black, has been gathered here in so short a time. " Northern 
capital " is the general explanation given ; and tlie Great Hotel 
is constantly referred to as a sample of the grand effects which 
" Northern capital " is destined to achieve in the Southern States. 
The number of Northern firms established in Atlanta, and the 
commercial prospecters flocking down from as far as Boston and 
New York, attest the mark which Atlanta and the " H. I." together 
have already made in Northern imagination. But the town is 
mainly indebted for all the progress yet made to political influ- 
ences. The capital of Georgia has been removed from Milledge- 
ville, situated, like other State capitals tlu'oughout the Union, 



en. XV.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 97 

as nearly as possible in tlie centre of the State, to tbis Nortbern 
town. The convts of justice, the annual sessions of the Legisla- 
ture, and the constant residence of the Governor and other 
officers of State, give to Atlanta both traffic and ^dat, and may- 
render it more and more a place of general concourse from all 
other parts of the State. Poor Milledgeville has been left in 
widowhood and desolation, and the State buildings, as well as 
much pi'ivate property, been rendered of no account, while 
Atlanta is expected to grow into a great city. Two brothers 
Kimball came down from Boston at the close of the war in a 
humble and unassuming character, but probably with ulterior 
ideas in their heads. They are types of a class of aspiring 
Northern men who have rushed to the South since the war, 
some to run plantations, some to open mines of coal and iron, 
some to build railroads, others to establish great hotels, and all 
to give a grand impulse to Southern progress, and show the " old 
fogies " in the South how to do it. Many of these enterprising 
men have already come to grief and left the country, while 
others are in full career to Fortune, or — her eldest daughter — 
Miss Fortune. The brothers Kimball appear to have seen the 
tide in the affairs of Atlanta sooner than almost anybody else, 
and seized it with remarkable success. They saw that Atlanta 
had an opera-house which was never likely to be finished, and 
could yield no return to anybody even though it were. They 
bought this building, it is said, for 85,000 dollars, and they sold 
it immediately to the "reconstructed" State at 350,000 dollars 
for a State House, to serve in room of the deserted building at 
Milledgeville. After this brilliant " spec," Mr. H. I. Kimball con- 
ceived the design of a grand hotel " to beat all creation," and in 
eight or nine months has reared a splendid structure, at an 
estimated cost of 600,000 dollars, to accommodate " some 1,000 
guests, and an unlimited number of boarders." ^ The main front 
is 210 feet, and the sides 163 feet each. The dining-room is 
75 by 40 feet, and the grand hall or ball-room is 103 by 46 feet, 
and 23 feet high. Besides the hotel proper, there are twenty-one 
stores and warehouses in the building. Two thousand labourers 
and mechanics have been thumping away in this mammoth 
caravansera since March last, and are still thumping. The esti- 
mated cost may very likely fall much short of the actual cost, 
but the peculiarity of the hotel as a speculation seems to be that 
the going expenses must for a long period swell the capital 
outlay. There is a French cook at 250 dollars a month. The 
gas bill alone would open half a dozen coal mines. Any one 
who desires to live well and handsomely could pray for no 
better caterer than " mine host " of the H. I. Mr. Kimball has 
naturally become a man of great intluence in Atlanta. He is a 
^ Atlanta Ncv) Era. 
H 



98 ATI A XT A. [ch. xv. 

munificent patron of State fairs, horse-races, and every good 
work. His political intluence is even thought, with probably a 
little dash of popular superstition, to be supreme in the State. A 
common saying in Georgia is that Blodgett, senator, controls the 
Governor, but that ]\Ir. H. I. Kimball controls Blodgett. The 
old native citizens look with some distrust on the general brisk- 
ness of trade and speculation in Atlanta. While willing to see 
" progress " in it all, they doubt whether robbery may not be 
going on. By an Act of Legislature passed this year, the Governor 
is authorized to receive from J. H. James a warranty title to " a 
city lot " for an executive mansion, and to pay the said James 
100,000 dollars in 7 per cent. State bonds. The taxpayers are 
shaking their heads, sometimes gnashing their teeth. The narrow 
base on which the universal negro suft'rage, "carpet-bag" quali- 
fication, and white proscription under the Ueconstruction Act of 
Congress, have placed political power, tends everywhere to 
destroj'' confidence in the financial operations of the State autho- 
rities. There is a decided rumbling in the sub-political world, 
and a great election to take place in Georgia towards the end of 
December may decide whether taxation and representation — the 
issue of State bonds and the property and substance pledged to 
pay them — are to be brought into more satisfactory and inter- 
dependent relationship. 

The present position of Georgia in the Union is a little anoma- 
lous. The State started very fair for reconstruction and admis- 
sion to the Union after the war, but the Legislature made a false 
step by ejecting two negro Deputies after allowing them to sit, 
vote, and take part in the proceedings of the session, and there 
has l3een some difticulty or delay since in getting the reconstruc- 
tion properly " fixed up." But there is no doubt that the status 
of Georgia as a member of the Ignited States Avill soon be com- 
pletely arranged. 

I was glad to find the Education Act of this }'ear under 
practical consideration in Atlanta, where in the present turmoil 
some of the higher matters of the law are but too apt to be 
neglected ; and 1 attended a public meeting of the citizens, the 
object of which was to urge the authorities to put the Act into 
operation. The meeting was not numerous, but intelligent and 
earnest as to the business on hand. There was strong advocacy 
of a system of free public schools for tlie })eople at large, the 
chief argument being one the force of which has been equally 
felt in the large towns of England and Scotland — viz., that private 
education is attainable only by the rich, and is too expensive for 
the working classes. One of the speakers, a mechanic, said that 
he and others would leave the town and seek a home in the 
AVest unless their children could be better and more cheaply 
educated, and he called upon the owners of property to consider 



cii. XV.] STATK OF GEORGIA. ii!) 

what liope there wouhl Ije of attracting artizans to Atlanta to 
build up the trade and wealth of the town if this privilege were 
denied tlieiri. A small party of opposition insisted on the 
financial dillicnlty, one of tlie numljer reminding the meeting 
tliat the city Ijonds liad fallen to 72 cents per dollar, and assert- 
ing that they would fall to 50 if more bonds were issued. The 
whole assessment, he said, would barely pay the interest of the 
city debt. But a quieter spoken and l^etter informed gentleman 
denied this assertion, and stated witli authority that the annual 
income of the town was 200,000 dollars, and the interest of the 
debt only 50,000. Tlie resolutions in favour of the oljject of the 
meeting were at length passed unanimously. The Education 
Act of (jreorgia does not contain any compulsory provision, but it 
constitutes a State Board of Education, consisting of the Governor, 
the Attorney-General, the .Secretary of State, the Comptroller- 
General, and a State School Commissioner to be nominated by 
the Governor and coniirmed by the Senate, on which Board the 
central authority and responsibility rest; it provides for the 
organizfition of County Boards ; the division of each county 
into sub-districts of not fewer than thirty pupils, and the intro- 
duction of ambulatory scliools into thinly peopled parts ; and it 
enacts that the funds shall be levied by a tax on the " taxable 
property " and on "the labour of the qualified voters" of each 
district. The State Board prescribes the text-books, but it is 
provided " that the Bible shall not be excluded from the public 
schools of the State." There are to be separate schools for white 
and coloured children. 

The ladies of Georgia affect a Highland style of costume, wear 
tartan plaids, tartan ribbons, and brightly striped mantles, and, 
not to llatter them, are as gay and handsome as any other section 
of the fashionable sisterhood. The gentlemen also seem very 
fond of grey plaids, which they place in smooth fold round their 
shoulders, losing one-half the comfoit and all the picturesqueness 
of that Highland garment. One of these grey plaids costs from 
13 to 15 dollars. A lady's shepherd taitan plaid — 72 by 144 — 
sells in the shops at 8^ dollars. The American manufacturer's 
price, I believe, is 5*75 dollars, leaving the draper a profit of 
50 per cent. One element of the high price of goods in the 
Southern States is no doubt the ample scale of retail profits. 
The shopkeeper expects a return of 50 per cent, on the staples 
of his stock, while on minor and niiscellaneous articles his profit 
is almost anything he likes. Foreign goods in this region are not 
abundant. Yet English earthenware and cutlery, and fine cloths 
of England and France, are sold in Savannah, Alacon, Atlanta, 
and other towns, and a much larger direct trade with Europe 
might probably be done, were anybody to take it up, notwith- 
standing the heavy duties. 

H 2 



1(H) CARTimsnilE. |cn. XV. 

The Atlantiau who is I'oiul of fu'hl sport, niul clioosos to koop 
a (h\tj and gun, has abuiulant liborty of pastime. Pavtviilgos, 
turkeys, and sometiiu(>s ileer, ww, shot iVeely in the wiUls and 
woods round the town. One gentleman, on Avlioni I eaUed, had 
just returned {\\m\ a day's hunting, and was abh^ to slunv me his 
spoik>^, among which was a botth? of home-matle peaeh brandy 
that had been juvsimteil to him at a larmlumse, antl j)roved a 
much sounder kind i>t' whisky than three-fourths that issue from 
the public distilleries of the United States, reaches are super- 
abundant in G(Hn'gia and all through the South. The people 
scarcely know what to do with them. They dry them, pickle 
them, inrserve them, and distil them ; and after all, the hogs, I 
daresay, eat a great many. 

There is seem from tlie upper windows of the Kimball House 
at Atlanta the most striking geological curiosit}' of (»eorgia. 
This is the Granite JMountain, rising sheer out of the plain to a 
height of near a thousand feet, ami about seven miles in circum- 
ference. The primary rocks, though known to occupy a con- 
siderable area above the lowest fdls of the rivers tlowing to the 
Athvntic, are but rarely disclosed in the Southern States. An 
uprising of the Silurian formation appears in some places to 
have' tilted the coal measures and the carboniferous strata to a 
considerable elevation, and to have given an anti-clinal deflection 
to what remains of the same deposits in the demuled valleys. 
But the primary rock seldom pii>rces the great mass of lime- 
stones which forms the eonnnon lloor of hill and hollow. The 
Stone Mountain of Georgia is, therefore, a very singular pheno- 
menon, and must be deeply interesting to geologists. It is a 
solid pyramid of grey granite, its massive walls smoothed by the 
washing rains, the huge boulders resting on its sides no more 
disturbing its pyramidal outline than if they were so many 
]H'l>bles, and the tall forest trees growing at its base looking like 
shrubbery under its mighty sluulow. The Stone ^[ountain, itself 
au abnormal development, may be said to mark the entrance 
from the south to a country of very dillerent physical cha- 
racteristics from the rest of Georgia, traversed by ranges of 
mountain, and impregnated with mineral treasures. 

Gartersville is tifty miles ncn-th of Atlanta. By a convenient 
arrangement of the American railways a j^assenger on a through 
ticket can stay at intermediate })laces, and pass on at liis con- 
venience. I stopped at Cartersville. A brancli railway is being 
made to Van Wert, twenty-two miles from Cartersville, and is 
about half opened. At Van Wert extensive slate (piarries have 
been opened o\\ the face of the hill — a fine dark-blue slate, 
which has hitherto been hauled in wagi^'ons to the railway at 
heavy cost, but will by and by. when the means of transport 
are completed, come into great favour for roofing. The branch 



cri. IV.] STATIC OF (il'lOROU. 101 

lijiG passes tliron;.'}! n wiivy lovely valley, well settled, and yield- 
ing grain, cotton, and luniljer in altiindance. "J'lie soil all roiinrl 
Cartersville is a red clayey loam, deej; and fertile, with ahundance 
of" limestone. The aspect of the country an English or Scotch 
farmer would at once recognize as that of a fine wheat-gi-owing 
country, and lic^avy crops of wln-at as well as cotton it does 
yield. There are numerous lime-kilns about, which ]>roduce the 
finest while lime, capable of being made an article of extensive 
cojinnerce. Among the slate quarries, deposits have been dis- 
covered of a character somewhat betv/eeri sandstone and soap- 
stone, which are cut out quite soft from the bed, fashioned into 
bricks, and become very hard on exjjosure to the air. They 
take a fine, smooth surface, are cream-like in colour, and so far 
as yet known will prove most durable. The bricks, when dried, 
are very heavy. Tliis seeins superior material for dressings 
round doors and windows, and cornicing. Maible quarries are 
wrought in Pickens County adjoining, and in a marble-yard at 
Cai-tersville I saw tine marble columns, almost ymi'e white as 
well as varicgat(id, and pedestals the scaly grain of which revealed 
a hard but ordinaiy limestone. The marbles of this section are 
cari'ied chielly to Marietta, a station on the State railway, and 
a considerable traffic is carried on in them to all the various 
towns — some being even sent to the North, There is abundance 
of rock in this district for mill and grinding stones, IJut no coal, 
so far as I have learned, has yet been discovered, though iron ore 
has been wrought to a considerable extent, and ]>ig is carried 
laboriously from the furnaces in waggons to " the State Koad," 
twelve miles and more. No geological survey has, unfortunately, 
yet been made of Northern Georgia. The appointment of a 
qualified State geologist would be a measure of great public 
utility. The whole of this noiihern section of the State is evi- 
dently rich in materials of scientific observation and commercial 
inlferest. 

The little town of Cartersville, rising up on either side of the 
railway — on both sides of which I lived long enough to find 
that there is a lively jealousy betwixt East and West, and the 
Big and Little-endians of the corporation — presented a quietly 
busy scene all day long. There was a crowd of waggons in the 
place, drawn some by oxen and some by mules, cairying their 
load of cotton or other produce to the depot, and taking up at 
the stores tlieir necessary supplies from the outside world, I 
stepped into the upper hall of a town house, which was being 
built in the front centre of the Big End, and found a bevy 
of young ladies and gentlemen whirling on "parlour skates" in 
a style which on ice would have made a great reputation, A 
young man " from the North " was presiding over a large assort- 
ment of the " parlour skates " for sale ! The Americans are a 



102 CARTERSni.LK. [cii. xv. 

most inf,'enimis peoiilci in small tilings. Lot aAvant, or semblance 
nf it want, 1)0 felt Llii'ouj^lioul, tho ciixiiimU'rcnoi! of the Union, 
and "a y<>iin<j; man IVom tlio Norlli" will inimtHlialcly apix^ar 
unci lix it all up to salisl'iict-ion. Still it isdiilic-iilt somctinuis to 
(iutl tlu! l'osl-oHic{'. 1 had wished to ])nt a letter in at Carters- 
\ille, and (he l)usin(!ss men eould toll ino, with some slij^ht 
variations, where tlui rost-olliec^ was tho day hoi'oro, while a 
lar<j;or niinihcr of \vitnesH(>s had a. distinct recollection where it 
was the previous week ; l»ut the whereabouts ol' tlu! ])ostmastor 
Tor the day heing undiseoveraJtle, 1 was drawn at len<^ih to the 
(!ount,y building' as the last intrenchment of ollicial lite, whither 
a spry, active little man, above middle age, in long light-blue 
coat and top-boots, driving a covered wfiggoii with two mules, 
came at the same moment in si-arch of "the Ordinary," a legal 
fiinetionary, and one of much highei- rank than the postmaster. 
We were alike nnsueeossl'ul in our ohje(;t — iudeed, there was 
nobody at all in the county building — and we dropped at once 
into the fellow-feeling "wondrous kind." lie had sailed i'rom 
Liverpool thirty years ago, and had now "hold of a watcr-])ower 
and factory" thirty-live milcis from Cartersville or the railroad, 
"llovv many hands in the factory?" "Seven." "How long 
doi\s it take you to go honui ?" "A day and three or four hours." 
" Then you camp out at night ?" "Of course." This I'jiglish- 
inan of thirty years' American citizenship, with his " hold on a 
water-power" thirty-iive miles from any centre of habitation, 
and no " Ordinary " to be found, sooniod to nie a deeply interest- 
ing study, and I looked a long time after him as he briskly 
jogged on with his mules. 1 1 is gi'cat expect atiou was tbat t In* rail- 
way would soon 1h> extended from IMai'ietta to Lickens county, 
wh(U'(! his wat(U-power and tho marble ({uarries are. Yet the reins 
of authority are by no means loosely held in Cartersville. The 
Mayor had issued an edict in writing that barbers opening their 
shops on Sunday M'ould he jjunished with the ntujost rigour of 
law. Tho severity of this ])roclaniation may hardly he ostimatcid 
unless one rcMuondHU's that few American citizens can really 
shave their own beards, anil that " tho barber" is as great an insti- 
tution in this country as he was in Spain four hundred years ago. 
The observance of the day of rest is marked all through (Jeorgia. 
One sees many I'uritan-looking countenances; and sturdy yeo- 
men, with straight hair and earnest aspect, come and go on 
ambling pallVi'ys and in splashed boots in such a place as 
(^irters\ille from sunrise to sundown. Tho state of society, the 
kiiul of trallie, tho country roads, and all the surroundings here, 
probably dill'er very little from many a rural district of England 
in the (lays of tho Koumlheads and Cavaliers. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Progress of (Jliattaiioofja. — Ascont of Lookout Moiintait). — fJootrraplucal ami 
Geolof^ical Foatiuos. — Traces of Uio War.- Tlic Jiolliii;^ Mills.— JJaiiks' 
Puddling A[ti);iratu8. — ("ost of producing (*oal and Iron Ore. — Visit to 

Mineral Pro])orti('H. — Agricnltiira,! f|Ualiti('H of the Land. '^''' "' 

Emigrants ut Chattanooga. Navigation of the Tennessee. 



Stream of 



[Cjiattanoooa, Tknn. — Dec. 2—5.] 

Chattanoo(;a is situated on the extreme verge ol" ,soutli-eiist(!ni 
Tennes,s(;(3, Ijiit, in ])oiiit of local attributes, i^ more closely allied 
to deoi'gia and Alabama tlian to the State of which it forms 
part. It acc^uired world-wide notoriety during the war as the 
centre of impoi-tant mililaiy m(jv(;ments, and has since been 
rendering itself famous in a more usc^ful and enduring sense. 
The |)Oi)ulation, now 8,()()(), has hugely increased (hiring the last 
two years. Tlu; constructifin of the Alabaiha and ('liattanooga 
llailroad, the new life given to the Itolling Mills by an enter- 
prising and successful comjtany, and the inci-eased importance 
attached to the mineral resources of the district, have all tended 
to enhance the value of ])i'0])erty and give great briskness to 
trade; and labour. From a litthi iKist of shanties, Chaltaiiooga is 
struggling forwai'd rajtidly into str(;ets of brick, with hoUHs, 
stores, and public l)uildings. The railways of Noi'th and South 
Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee have here a common 
point of connection, and "vid Chattanooga" figures all over the 
Noith-Eastern States as the index of a gr(;at route for passengers 
and emigrants to the South and to the vast tracts of 'i'exas and 
Arkansas west of the Mississip|ji. ('liattanociga is cradled 
amidst mountains, the gi'(!at Cundttirland chain spr(!ading its 
spurs into Georgia and Alabama on all sides of it ; and it may 
be said to sleep and wake to the sound of the waters of the 
Tennessee, which here yjursues a most serpentine course, and in 
scfjoping out its bed amidst the sand and limestone I'ock appears 
at various points to have miss(!d by a hairsbreadth a much 
shorter cut to the sea. Though built on one of the loops of the 
river, and environed by rock and hill, Chattanooga has ample 
space for expansion valley ward. In the immediate vicinity the 
Lookout range of hills terminates in the bold and striking peak 



104 CHATTANOOGA. [ch. x7I. 

kno^\^l as Lookout Mountain, which, as the country was inviting, 
I resolved to ascend. 

Though near mid-winter, the day was bright, sunny, and warm 
as summer in England. A short canter across the plain brings 
one to the base of the mountain, striking it about the middle, 
where a winding road has been cut to the summit. On ascend- 
ing, the hill appears as if built up of huge boulders bedded 
in red sandy clay, which, but for the boulders, one imagines 
would make a good crop-bearing soil. Great blocks of stone lie 
on the surface, worn by the weather into all shapes and forms. 
Solid masses, square or oblong, rise out of what seems a deep 
earth, as if they had a foundation far down, and were either still 
an integral part of the everlasting hill, or had been built in and 
carved by the hand of man. Pines, whose roots had struck the 
rock, and spread in strong ribs along its surface, and wound their 
tenderest fibres through its crevices, have shared the fate of 
storm or landslip, which has wrenched great masses of stone 
from their foundations, and placed them topsy-turvy on the 
mountain-side. The abundance of soil gives root all way up to 
a great variety of trees and shrubs. AYooden shanties peep out 
from the trees like nests along the mountain-side, and the con- 
stant tinkle of the cow-bell gives notice that many poor families 
nourish themselves in this wilderness. The mountain is pretty 
steep from its base, .but near the summit the sandstone rises up 
in a massive perpendicular wall, somewhat like the top ridge 
of the Salisbury Crags at Edinl)ui'gh, but three or four times as 
high, reckoning from the point where it rests visibly above the 
" millstone grit," limestone, and Silurian rocks which probably 
form the nether foundations of the mountain. This crest of free- 
stone, with its fringe of pines and other trees atop, when looked 
at from a distance, while the sun is wearing down to the west, 
bristles up and spreads over the horizon like the comb of a cock. 
The road at length approaches the Sunnnit House, frequented 
by New Orleans and other Southern people in summer, and by 
invalids from the Far West in winter. The glass in the house 
stood at 60 degrees between 11 and 12 o'clock. In summer the 
heat is seldom more than 85 degrees. Pushing forward, over the 
finest white sand, and through older and more umbrageous 
timber than appeared on the mountain-side, to the very edge of 
the cliffs in which the mountain abruptly terminates at a height 
of 1,800 feet, and at the base of which the Tennessee is forced by 
the massive resistance to make one of its sudden but graceful 
windings, scenes of surpassing loveliness burst on the view. The 
houses of Chattanooga seem sprinkled about like snuff-boxes on 
the plain. The majestic river, sweeping out from well-threaded 
mazes to the north. Hows in a smooth and gentle current west- 
ward, as if in mere kindness to Chattanooga, which otherwise it 



en. XTi.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 106 

might overflow, and, passing behind a great ridge in that direc- 
tion, emerges again in a broad and placid south-eastern curve 
round another side of the town, till, meeting this formidable wall 
of rock, it bends once more and flows in a western course past 
the base of the cliffs, and is finally lost to view amidst wooded 
mountains and gorges, almost as far north as the point at which 
it first comes into sight. The Tennessee, in describing this 
series of syplion-like movements, albeit rockbound, seems never 
to lose its sovereignty of action, or to wander anywhere save 
according to its own sweet will. The process of denudation by 
the deluge of waters that must have rolled over these parts, 
splitting broad mountains in two, and washing down their dis- 
integrated materials into a slowly and far-receding ocean, leaving 
only this perennial watercourse, amid deposits of " drift," and 
sand and clay, and minerals, and mountain sections thickly 
powdered with its alluvium, as its final representative in all this 
present equilibrium of land and water, is written on valley and 
mountain-top in characters so plain that "he who runs may 
read." Broad vales stretch away southward on either side of the 
mountain. Sandy ])ine-covered hills, which look formidable on 
the plain, appear like little mounds over which the plough 
might pass. Towards the east, tier after tier of woody heights 
lift the eye step by step to the towering Cumberlands on the 
verge of the horizon. Southward the view is bounded by the 
hills of Georgia, and westward towards Alabama by a series of 
mountain ranges, thickly wooded, and bearing on their crown 
the same perpendicular wall of rock and comb of trees as the 
Lookout range. The outfliers, the tasselled rocky standards, of 
half a dozen great States, may be seen from Lookout Mountain. 
And here, on the topmost cliffs, the sandstone lies in great slabs, 
horizontal, vertical, and angular, forming pulpits and streets of 
rock ; and topes of trees umbrella-like have grown up to give 
shade and shelter; — the scene erewhile of terrible commotions 
of Nature, followed by long ages of rest, and growth, and the 
silent spring and fall of vegetation. 

The plateau of the mountain is of considerable breadth, though 
it is evident, from the depth of the adjoining valleys, that the 
denudation has been here extremely powerful, and has cut more 
deeply than on many of the other ranges. The only traces of 
the war visible are the sites of two or three batteries on the 
edge of the cliffs, and an earthwork in the centre of the plateau. 
Seven or eight thousand Confederates are said to have occupied 
this natuj'al and impregnable fortress, but were surprised one 
morning by the Federals under Eosencranz, who stole in the 
night along the western base of the mountain, and, passing 
under the peak to the slopes on tlie eastern side, gained easy 
possession. Somewhile previous the Federals had struck the 



106 CHATTANOOGA. [en. xvi. 

railway at Bridport, and the defence at Lookout had lost its 
importance. The evacuation of Chattanooga by the Confede- 
rates was followed by the great battles on Missionary Kidge, 
where the Federals encountered severe resistance, and Rosen- 
cranz lost his command. 

Tlie llolling JNIills at Cliattanooga, which liad done good service 
to the Confederates during the war, fell into the hands of the 
Federal Government, and have now entered on a new and pro- 
mising career under an energetic and capable private company. 
General Wilder, whose campaigns had revealed to him the 
mineral resources of this section of country, is the active spirit 
of this enterprise. He has joined with lum a partnership of 
capitalists, and is displaying a natural sagacity and aptitude in 
mining coal and iron, as well as in the mechanical operations of 
the lioUing Mills, that are likely to be attended with the most 
successful results. Tlie company bought the old mill and 145 
acres of land from the Government for 225,000 dollars, and are 
selling oif the land in buikling lots at prices which will leave 
the actual cost of tlie mill and 30 acres of ground not more than 
12,000 dollars. They have built a new mill in line with the 
old one, and are fitting up the necessary power and machinery, 
including twelve of l)anks' patent puddling apparatus — a new 
invention, of which confident hopes are entertained. This is the 
first mill in which it is to be put to actual working test, and if 
it prove successful the saving will be about nine dollars per ton. 
The process of puddling is effected by steam-power turning a 
double circular cliaraber, in one section of which is the furnace, 
and in the other the bloom. One puddler will be able to attend 
two of these machines. A charge of from GOO lbs. to 800 lbs. of 
pig is put in, the chamber revolves, and the bloom, when perfect, 
is carried direct to the squeezer, thence to a furnace, and finally 
to the rollers.^ It is computed that, when all the new appliances 
are in operation, the mills will be able to make 150 tons of rails 
a day. The company mine their own coal and iron ore on a pro- 
perty fifteen miles long farther up the Temiessee, on which they 
bring down the pig and coal in small steamboats, drawing from 
two to three feet of water, to the Eolling Mills. There is a fur- 

1 While tliese sheets have been passing through the press, Mr. Banks has 
appeared at the autumn meeting of the Iron and Steel Institute at Dudley 
(Aug. 30), and subniitte<l a piiper explanatory of his " Rotary Puddling 
Furnace," which gave rise to an interesting discussion on mechanical puddling. 
Mr. Fothergill, M.P., is reported to have said that "the effects produced by 
Mr. Danlvs' furnace were so startling that he could not refrain from expressing 
the greatest interest in it. In that furnace the brealung-down of the fettling 
proved highly beneficial. It was claimed for it that it produced a higher 
quality of iron, and did aw;iy with the labour of the puddler," A suggestion 
that a commission should be appointed to go to America to examine Mr. 
Dauks' works was well received by the Institute. 



CH. XVI.] STATE OF GEORGIA. 107 

nace in operation at the mines, wliicli produces 20 tons of pig 
iron, and is being extended to produce 40 tons, a day. The coal, 
as is characteristic of the coal measures in the South, is found 
in the face of the mountain, above the underlying masses of 
limestone, in seams of four to ten feet thick. The beds of iron 
ore are from six to fifteen feet. The company are working two 
veins of coal and tAVo of iron in such immediate juxtaposition 
that the furnace is close to both and midway between them. 
The cost of ore at the furnace is 2 dollars per ton ; the cost of 
coal 1'40 dollars per ton ; the limestone 80 cents a ton; and the 
fire-clay so convenient as to cost nothing. The company calcu- 
late that they will be able to make iron rails and lay them down 
in Pittsburg cheaper than they can be produced in that great 
centre of the Pennsylvanian coal and iron fields ; and if this 
should be demonstrated, the mineral resources of East Tennessee, 
Georgia, and Alabama will command immediate attention. 

The Alabama and Chattanooga Eailroad, one of the great 
railway works of the last two years, passes from this point 
through the mineral districts of Alabama betwixt the Black 
Warrior and Coosa riAers, and has been already opened for traffic 
as far as Elyton ; while at the other end, from Meridian in Mis- 
sissippi, the connection has been simultaneously advanced. Some 
thirty-five miles on either side of Tuscaloosa at this date requires 
only to be laid with iron in order to complete this great line of 
communication. It is difficult to see how this road can pay in 
the meantime ; but if it should fiicilitate the opening of the 
coal and iron deposits known to lie along nearly its whole route, 
it will be the means of doing great good to the State of Alabama, 
and may ultimately develop a large traffic. 

With the view of visiting some mineral properties already 
operated upon, and of seeing the general indications of the 
country, I passed down this line of railroad as far as Trenton. 
!Near to that place there is an estate of 2,500 acres, extending 
across the valley from the top of Piaccoon Mountain to Lookout 
Creek, a small stream flowing near the base of the Lookout 
range. This property was bought some years ago for 75,000 
dollars by Northern capitalists, who formed themselves into a 
company for mining and manufacturing iron. They erected a 
furnace of 30 feet base and 84 feet high; put up an engine of 
70-horse-power, with Uie intention of erecting a second furnace, 
for which the engine would have been sufficient ; and proceeded 
to melt the iron ore abounding over the property. Put, ap- 
parently from want of practical skill and efficient arrangements, 
the company lost so much money — though it is difficult to see 
how — and fell into such discouragement, that its operations have 
for some time been ]iractically aliandoned. The property is in 
the meantime under tlie care of Mr. M'Lean, one of the share- 



108 TRENTON. [cu. xvi. 

holders of the company, who is cropping the land. Mr. M'Lean 
accompanied me up the Eaccoon. Along sandy mounds near 
the base of the mountain he pointed out a series of pits where, 
a few feet from the surface, deposits of fossiliferous iron ore 
were dug out with great facility, and were found rich enough to 
keep the furnace, from which they are little more than half a 
mile distant, going while it was in blast. These surface deposits 
are found in various parts of the property athwart the valley. 
The furnace was fired with wood, cut down on the mountainj 
and hauled by oxen to the plain. There is a winding bullock- 
track up the steep which had been used for this purpose ; 
and our horses were able to carry us far up towards the summit. 
The character of the mountain differs little from that of Look- 
out ; and on glancing across the valley one is struck with the 
verisimilitude of the faces of the hills. It almost seems as if the 
two ranges bad been sliced, and had somehow glided or been floated 
away from each other. Nature has here, over wide districts, 
acted with such uniformity that it may be safely concluded that 
what is characteristic of one mountain or valley will be charac- 
teristic of another. But though it has been known for fifty 
years to the blacksmiths of the district that there is coal in 
the Eaccoon Mountain, yet there has been no thorough survey 
of it, or no tliorough effort made to mine either coal or iron from 
its bosom. Mr. IM'Lean first conducted me to a spot where, from 
the debris around, coal had evidently been picked out; but, 
owing to the subsidence of the superincumbent rock, it could 
not be judged how far the excavation had been made, or of 
what thickness the seam, though visible enough, might be. 
Farther up, a bed of fine hematite ore was revealed along 
several yards, and was at least two feet thick. Near this 
point the great wall of sandstone above had cracked, and fallen 
in masses down the mountain. This barrier seemed almost im- 
passable, but we dismounted, and, climbmg over the sea of 
broken rock, landed on a shoulder, where we discovered, half 
hidden by bushes, a real coal-pit — a lateral boring into the 
mountain fifteen or twenty yards long, three or four yards wide, 
and about as many feet deep. The place was filled with water, 
and did not seem to have been entered for years ; but the black 
and glistening coal was seen in unbroken lines, nearly three feet 
thick, on both sides of the boring. The probability is that these 
beds of coal and hematite not only run along the whole range of 
hill till the latter falls away or is intersected by cross valleys, 
but lie through the whole mountain to the other side ; so that the 
comparative thinness of the seams may be compensated by their 
vast superficial area, and the ease with which they may be 
brought to the face, and shot down to the furnace. 

A few miles farther down the vailey there is another mining 



cii. XVI.] STATE OF OEOROIA. 109 

property on which a large amount of capital was expended by 
the " Empire State Iron and Coal Company ". just before the 
outbreak of the war, but which has never recovered from the 
collapse that ensued. The ground was prospected, seams of 
coal and iron found, and a furnace erected ; but there operations 
seem to have ended. The property eml>races the summits both 
of Lookout and Raccoon INfountains, with the intervening valley, 
or rather valleys ; for the Silurian has been uplifted between 
the mountains so as to produce an anti-clinal structure in which 
the strata are found to dip in opposite directions from the centre 
of the valley. One peculiarity of the " Empire State " property 
is that the coal measures have been exposed on both mountains, 
and that seams of coal and iron have been traced on the eleva- 
tions of the valley with a dip towards the base of the hills on 
each side. I did not see the seam of hematite ore here which I 
saw on the other place, but I am told that hematite has been 
found, and all analogy -would lead one to expect such a result. 
From the " fix " in which this estate has been left by the war, 
it might not only be taken up on advantageous terms, but under 
practical and skilful management might become very productive. 
A coal mine is wrought in the same neighbourhood at a place 
called " Eureka." This mine was not doing much, but Mr. 
Staunton, the entrepreneur of the Chattanooga and Alabama road, 
called in the assistance of Mr. Miller, a retired Scotch coalmaster 
who has been spending a long lioliday in this part of the world, 
and under his direction the " black diamonds " were brought 
out in more satisfactory quantity. 

The characteristic of all these properties is that they are very 
valuable in an agricultural sense alone. The railroad runs 
through the middle of them. The property under the care of 
Mr. M'Lean is as compact and delightsome an agricultural estate 
as could be desired. There are at least 500 acres of superior aral)le 
land growing wheat, cotton, and Indian corn ; a large dairy could 
be supported besides ; and the terraces of the mountain-side, 
basking under a bright sun, seem well-adapted for the culture of 
vines. Wide tracts of herbage on the mountain-top would rear 
many cattle. Pleasant little bits of forest glade enhance the 
charms of the scenery, and from the farmhouse in the centre of 
the valley, an old seat of the Cherokees, the eye falls over the 
whole bounds. A populous town is rising in the immediate 
vicinity, and in the event of mineral development the valley 
lands round Lookout may be farmed with great advantage. 

Two classes of emigrants ])ass and repass through Chattanooga 
almost daily. Lithe young fellows rushing to or from some of 
the new terrorities in the South- West, who carry their blankets 
and few et ceteras in a knapsack, and make their own coffee on 
board the cars — resolved to spend little and earn much — so 



110 TRENTON. [ch. xvi. 

hardy, eager, and impetuous that one would say that nothing less 
than a crop of gold could satisfy the burning passion of their 
hearts ; and small farmers, with their wives and children and 
favourite pointers, moving westward to Texas or Arkansas, who 
arrive in covered bullock waggons loaded with their household 
gods from distant points in the adjoining States — from homes 
which were made with difficulty towards others which may only 
be found with more. The restlessness of the American people, 
their eager quest of new lands, and their proneness to fall under 
the spell of new dreams of fortune, are very striking, and im- 
press a certain character of change and adventure on every 
branch of business and pursuit of life. The proper cultivation 
of the soil, the progress of arts, and the development and con- 
solidation of society are retarded, meanwhile, by the very super- 
abundance of the elements out of which all the blessings of 
civilization spring. It will require probably a hundred years to 
settle the Americans down to works of minute but all-important 
improvement. 

The Tennessee is navigable to small vessels hundreds of miles 
above Chattanooga. There is some talk of cutting the shoals 
farther down the river, and opening a continuous waterway to 
the Mississippi. Congress has shown some favour to a scheme 
for spending four millions of dollars, and has already appro- 
priated a hundred millions to carry out this purpose, which may 
have some beneficial consequences in the great valley. But 
Chattanooga is so well supplied with means of railway transit 
that it stands in but subordinate need of being made a shipping 
port. The railways in America are carrying all before them in 
inland traffic. 



CHAPTEE XVIL 

The " Valley of the Tennessee " — its first Settlement by White Planters — 
its Physic;il Features. — Present Agricultural Condition. — Competition 
betwixt the Old and New Cotton Lands of "the West."— Marks of 
Desolation. — Want of Labour. — Movements of the Negroes. — Division of 
Estates. — Symptoms of Revival.^ — Progress of the Small Hill Farmers. 

[Valley of the Tennessee, Ala. — Dec. 6 to Jan. 5.] 

From Chattanooga and its mountain defiles to the great Yalley 
of 'the Tennessee is only a night's journey on the Memphis and 
Charleston Kailroad, but it is like passing from one country into 
another — from Nature in her sternest and proudest to Nature in 
lier softest and mddest moods. Fifty years ago this magnificent 
plain was in possession of the Indians, who called it by one of 
the sweetest names in their language — Alabama, or "Here we 
rest." In 1818, when the American Government, in pursuance 
of its fundamental doctrine that " all men are born equal," had 
advanced far enough in its wars and negotiations with the 
Cherokees and other tribes to put up the partially evacuated 
lands for sale, the Valley of the Tennessee was noted far and 
wide, and pioneer merchants of the South- Western territories, 
who had made little fortunes in trade and commerce, and gentle 
families of agriculturists from Virginia and the Carolinas, 
hastened down to the sales and bought up the estates. The 
valley was then for the most part a great forest of oak and 
cedar, broken only by natural glades, crystal streams flowing 
through ravines of magnesian limestone, and broad spaces of 
rich bottom land along the course of the majestic river. When 
the settlers had built their log-houses on the picturesque sites 
abounding in the woods, and gathei'ed round them their little 
communities of negro slaves — all the results of hard cash, 
according to the doctrine of equality then prevailing — herds of 
red deer would be seen of an early morning bounding across 
the lawns, flocks of wild turkeys roosting on the trees, and 
the Eed Man, lingering in his much-loved haunts, would let fly 
his arrow within the forbidden precincts, and assert his ancient 
right of chase. The new life in the Valley of the Tennessee 



112 TUE TENNESSEE VALLEY. [en. xvii. 

was full of romance, of a rough but pictorial beauty, and of 
such difficulty only as was made light and easy by the excite- 
ment of new circumstances and the sense of growing affluence 
and security. It seemed philosophically to have only two draw- 
backs, inasmuch as it was founded on the dispossession of one 
race and the subjugation of another. But philosophy did not 
rule the world more in those days than it does now. The North 
is becoming every year more savage and implacable against the 
Eed Man, and the South so much more indulgent towards the 
Black that he is already elevated into a sort of fool's paradise. 
After the Indians, there came white masters and black slaves in 
North Alabama; but there were only bridle roads from one 
plantation to another, no towns or pleasures of the ordinary 
civilized routine, and even bread and meat had to be imported. 
Yet cotton in those days was 25 cents per pound, and there was 
promise of money-making, with no one knows what El Dorados 
of territorial sentiment and splendour, snatched in imagination 
from the Old World to adorn the New. So the planters put 
their wives on pads behind the saddle, met at each other's 
houses, lived a merry and hospitable life; and the Valley of 
the Tennessee was soon occupied from end to end by lords and 
ladies of the land— men capable in business, and dames bringing 
both grace and wisdom from afar — who spread civility and plenty 
round them by degrees, and gave a tone to society that was 
spoken of from New York to New Orleans, and the impress of 
which, after all the havoc of war and revolution, still remains. 

The Tennessee Eiver, escaping from the mountain tangle in 
which it winds through many a ravine and round many a rocky 
bend and forest dell over hundreds of miles of its infant course, 
bounds at length into a spacious level country not far from 
Huntsville, a pretty little town of several thousand inhabitants, 
enclosed in an amphitheatre by the spurs of the Cumberland 
range, and possessing a magnificent natural water supply in a 
spring which sends forth a copious stream at the rate of 800 
cubic feet a minute. The Tennessee, now at ease, flows in 
more majestic breadth without losing the air and dash of moun- 
tain freedom, or the will to wander in sweeping and graceful 
curves impressed by habit on its swelling waters. The valley 
first opens and extends towards the south over twenty or thirty 
miles, where the Tennessee bends round at Guntersville, and 
valley and river take a directly westward course to Bear's Creek, 
on the border line of x\labama and Mississippi. The Memphis 
and Charleston Railroad, which passes to the north bank of the 
river soon after leaving Chattanooga, approaches it again at 
Huntsville, and crosses to the south bank by an iron bridge at 
Decatur, twenty-four miles farther west. The river here seems 
full half a mile broad, and has the same aspect of mingled 



en. xvii.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 113 

grandeur and beauty as impresses one at other points of its 
course. Cotton is brought in tiat-bottonied boats and raits from 
the pLantations on the river bottom to Decatur, and is hauled up 
by mules to the railway depot. The Valley of the Tennessee, 
thus stretching along nearly the whole northern frontier of 
Alabama, is fifteen to twenty miles or more broad. The line of 
hill country to the south, sometimes lost altogether, is at others 
visible only in a narrow blue strip along the verge of the hori- 
zon, wdiich, as the sun sinks in the heavens, becomes more pro- 
minent, and, mingling its deepening blue and purple with the 
burnished gold of the western sky, gives form and limit to a 
scene of extraordinary glory. The mountain range on the north 
is in some parts bolder and more lofty, but, being broken by 
valleys and wide declinations sweeping down from the table- 
lands of Tennessee, presents an irregular outline. Many creeks 
flow down from the uplands on both sides to the river, and, fed 
by numerous branches that are almost pure springs, have worn 
themselves deep beds through the underlying rocks, and amidst 
soily banks clothed with tree and shrub, and scented by every 
species of wild flower. There is not only abundance of water 
everywhere for man and beast, but a facility of water-power for 
which the development of the country affords little or no present 
use. The soil of the valley is a deep reddish loam, almost dark 
in the bottoms, but of a lighter hue as the land ascends, till in 
the uplands, where the sandstones lie, the surface becomes almost 
white. Limestones of various qualities underlie the whole 
region, and form the bed of the river. On many of the lands 
a reddish sandstone is strewn in small boulders, not water-worn 
or pebbly, but apparently little pieces of broken rock, which are 
thickly marked with shell and other marine remains. On one 
plantation, where these fragments are more than ordinarily 
plentiful, the planter has them gathered in heaps on his clover 
fields, and built up in fences — the only stone fences I have seen 
in the Southern States. One cannot lift one of these stones and 
break it without being struck by the number of fossiliferous 
indentations. The Valley of the Tennessee would, no doubt, be 
deeply attractive to the geologist who abandoned himself for 
months or years to its study, but to the agricultiirist it presents 
itself simply as " a land of Goshen " where every product of 
the soil may be grown and cultivated with rare success, where 
cattle may be reared and made fat and tender, and the produce 
of the dairy may contribute no unimportant item to the resources 
of the farm. In the meanwhile its agriculture has reached only 
a rudimentary and transitional stage, of which cotton was the 
beginning and is still the end, with little garnishings of " hog 
and hominy" as a collateral, but, so far, all too narrow basis of 
security. Whether cotton can be successfully cultivated as the 

I 



114 THE TENNESSEE VALLEr. [ch. xvii. 

main crop in such sections of countiy as this, while at the same 
time full attention be given to other agricultural resources of the 
soil, is a question of deep concern, not only to the people here, 
but to the progress of cotton manufactures and the interests of 
the commercial world. If the production of cotton is bound to 
seek virgin soils and speculative fields, it is impossible it can 
attain the solidity and permanence so desirable and essential to 
one of the greatest branches of human industry and trade ever 
known. The Valley of the Tennessee is a favourable sample of 
countless acres of the older cotton lands of America on which 
this question is now forcing itself on the x>lanter with all but 
desperate urgency and keenness. 

It was hither that cotton culture made its first great stride 
to the West, and forty years ago the A^alley of the Tennessee 
occupied the same relative place as the IMississippi bottom 
and the rich virgin soils of Arkansas and Texas do now. We 
are here on the border line of lands the maximum product 
of which is half a bale of cotton per acre, and lands where 
a bale to the acre may be gathered with nearly as much cer- 
tainty. The competition is severe and crucial. It seems to 
waver in the balance whether the old cotton lands will be 
impelled at once or be forced gradually to let the new have 
it, and set against their greater mortality and social dis- 
comfort the larger pecuniary returns arising froui a more pro- 
lific soil and a diminished area of productioir An inspection 
of this valley does not at first view convey a very fiattering 
impression of the regular and progressive extension of cotton 
cultivation. It consists for the most part of plantations in a 
. state of semi-ruin, and plantations of which the ruin is for the 
present total and complete. They are mostly large plantations, 
2,000 acres in extent or thereabouts, and retain very much the 
original division by the Government, according to exact lines of 
survey. The boundaries can usually be traced by the belts of 
wood which the old planters reserved round their possessions for 
fuel, fence rails, and other plantation purposes. A scarcity of 
timber is as great a/ disqualification to a cotton plantation as a 
scarcity of water oA a grazing farm, or a want of fall and outlet 
on an arable swam|). The trail of war is visible throughout the 
valley in burnt-uu gin-houses, ruined bridges, mills, and factories, 
of which latter tlie gable walls only are left standing, and in 
large tracts of once cultivated land stripped of every vestige of 
fencing. The roads, long neglected, are in disorder, and having 
in many places become impassable, new tracks have been made 
through the woods and fields without much respect to boundaries. 
Borne down by losses, debts, and accumidating taxes, many who 
wei'c once the richest among their fellows have disappeared from 
the scene, and few have yet risen to take their places. But gene- 



en. xvn.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 115 

rally the old homesteads and the old families continue to be the 
centres of reviving industry and cultivation, and many valiant 
efforts have Leeu made since the war to stay the advancing tide 
of barrenness and ruin. Fences have been rebuilt round not a 
few of the plantations, and the negi'O and the mule been once 
more set to work in growing corn and cotton. Yet in the best 
examples of this kind the restoration is incomplete, and a plan- 
tation, however firndy held and actively cultivated, has seldom 
more than one-third of its good arable soil in crop or grass, the 
balance being abandoned to broomsedge — a tall, grassy weed, 
which waves at this season in vrlntey rankness over immense 
sweeps of this fertile vall^^^Want of labour, and want of 
means of deep, rapid, and effective ploughing, are the chief 
immediate causes of this wide-spreading inutility of soid<^Vhen 
the Federal armies passed through the valley, many of the young 
and able-bodied negroes followed them to the wars, and few 
lived through the toils and sickness of the camps to come back. 
When the war ended, and the bond of slavery was dissolved, 
other swarms went off to seek new masters in the field of free 
labour, and after a season of trial, often bitter, are only returning 
by degrees to their old homes, There is a marked deficiency of 
labour in the valley for the cultivation and improvements which 
the planters would otherwise be willing and prepared to under- 
take. The patches of cultivation, under such a laborious crop 
as cotton, must follow slowly and patiently year after year the 
number of hands available. The general tendency of circum- 
stances is to break up the large possessions of former times, 
since every proprietor feels that he has more land than he can 
profitably handle. ]\Iany of the planters would sell a portion of 
tlieir estates were there any buyers; but I have been able to 
discover few new settlers or investments of fresh capital in land. 
In one instance an English doctor of medicine who came to this 
part of the world in quest of health, has bought a plantation in 
the neighbourhood of Courtland — a little village on the railway, 
that, in its general features and surroundings, may have 
reminded him of many a rural spot in his native land — and is 
so pleased with the result that he is bringing out his family 
and relatives. Upwards of ninety adveitisements of real estate 
for sale are posted in the hotel at Courtland. The revolution 
that has passed over the soil has left many embarrassments, 
which time alone will clear away. One sometimes falls upon a 
great proprietor who came to the valley a M-orking man, and 
made money, and added plantation to plantation, till he was 
richer than all the older planters or their descendants, and who 
now sits amidst his wilderness of lands without labourers, not 
knowing what to do with them, or at what figure to estimate his 
worth in the world. In such cases, as well as others in which 

I 2 



116 THE TENNESSEE VALLEY. [cii. xvii. 

farms have fallen into Chancery, the soil, for some nominal 
tribute or share of the cotton crop, enough to pay the taxes, has 
"been literally abandoned to the field hands, who still under 
emancipation retain much of the nature of ascripti glehce, and 
cling for better or for worse to the soil on which they were 
reared. I have seen more than one great plantation absolutely 
deserted, and as void of fence or labour as it was at the end of 
the war. This state of affairs has given rise to assiduous efforts 
to rent out land to cultivators ; and a class of people called 
" croppers," mostly whites, enter into annual tenancies of land. 
But as the beginning and end of these engagements is simply to 
raise a crop, they leave the country as it was, or a little worse, 
and are, so far, of little or no account as a means of permanent 
extrication or improvement. Yet behind all this difficulty there 
is an undergrowth of wholesome influences at work that 
promise ultimately a great revival and deliverance. The sceptre 
falling from the hands of fathers is being grasped by vigorous and 
stalwart sons, who are rallying labour round them, and, while 
plodding in the cotton field, are also riding and hunting, courting 
and marrying, and casting all the past behind them with hopeful 
outlook to the future. The war has been terribly severe on the 
old people. The long struggle over, they have dropped into 
their graves, unable to support the worry and anxiety any 
longer. When a father dies in Alabama, as in other parts of 
the United States, his property is divided equally among his 
sons and daughters, and this law approves itself so entirely to 
the general sentiment that it is seldom countervailed by will 
or testament. The wealthy classes hereabouts, indeed, have 
almost a prejudice that it is a bad thing for any one to be born 
to riches or large possessions. In slavery times, when a planta- 
tion, with its quota of human chattels, hung very much together 
and could not be well divided, one of the family would buy out 
the other members, and preserve the property. This is still 
being done in some cases, but frequently a division of plantations 
is being carried out ; and by-and-by there will be three or four 
flourishing farms where there was only one before. Pushing law- 
yers in the towns, and thrifty storekeepers, are also eking together 
good manageable farms, and cultivating them with fresh spirit and 
intelligence. Modes of agricultural improvement are discussed 
with animation in society and in the newspapers, and not a few 
of the older planters are " walking encyclopaedias " of all kinds of 
geological and rural lore. Some of Gray of Uddingston's ploughs 
are being imported all the way from Scotland, and if Scotch 
ploughmen and land-stewards would only follow them, a favour- 
able change would no doubt pass quickly over the soil. But 
while recuperation can here be but slow and gradual at the best, 
there are not wanting many signs of progress _and vitality.. The 



cii. XVII.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 117 

population of the V.alley of the Tennessee is too considerable 
and substantial to allow its great interests to subside. Though 
the reduced price of cotton this season has raised new fore- 
bodings of difficulty, and caused planters in the heyday of life 
to talk of selling out and emigrating to Texas or Colorado, yet 
to graver and more patient minds it has suggested ideas of a 
more diversified development of the resources of the soil, and 
more economic arrangenients of labour and husbandry ; and, in 
a greatly modified system of agriculture, the Valley of the 
Tennessee is likely, without eventually impairing its production 
of cotton, to find its way at no distant time to new prosperity 
and fruitfulness. 

It is here, however, in one of the " gardens of the South," 
famous for the production of cotton, that one feels more and 
more the increasing wonder how all the large crops of late have 
been produced. The old plantations, indeed, have gone on 
extending their crop, little by little, year after year, since the 
war — the first year after which, notwithstanding the high price 
then ruling, was probably the most unsuccessful ever known. 
But, acre for acre under cultivation, the Valley of the Tennessee 
yields now a smaller quantity of cotton than in slavery times, 
while there are obviously large tracts once cultivated now wild 
and in a state of rest and neglect. Yet, in going back from the 
river bottoms and the large plantations towards the uplands, one 
explanation at least, amidst various others, appears. The hilly 
districts have long been inhabited by a poor white population, 
who have always produced more or less cotton. But the high 
value to which cotton was raised by the war, and the " labour 
difficulty " of the large plantations, have inspired them with 
new hope, life, and industry ; and this class of gi'owers have 
swelled considerably of late years the deliveries of cotton at the 
railway depots. The fall of price is probably as disappointing 
to them as to others, but the extent to which they raise their 
crop by the labour of their own families renders the j?c?' contra 
of cost less distinct to them than to the large planters. They 
gin and bale their produce at common gin-houses; they spin 
and weave their own cloth ; nourish their cows and hogs ; and, 
when the seasons are favourable, succeed in raising a fair stand 
of cotton. There never have been better or larger crops of 
cotton in the hill districts than this season. These small hill 
farmers come down occasionally into the plain, looking for land 
to rent or buy ; and it is not improbable that many of the better 
and more industrious class of families in " the mountains," as 
the gently swelling uplands are called, will eventually come 
down altogether, and help to renovate the waste places, and build 
up the agricultural prosperity of the Valley. 



CHAPTEE XVIII. 

Routine on a Cotton Plantation. — The Surroundings. — Planting and INIar- 
riage.^ — A Ride " round" 2,500 acres. — Disposal of the Soil. — Organization 
of Labour in the Cotton-fields. — Cotton-picking. — Ginning and Pressing. 
— Need of White Laljour. — Live Stock on a Plantation. — The Hogs. — 
*' Killing Day." — Pauperism and Free Labour. — Shallow Ploughing. — 
The " Mussel Shoals" of the Tennessee. 

[Valley of the Tennessee. — Town Creek, Bee. 10.] 

The routine of life on a cotton plantation, though busy and en- 
gaging enough, does not realize all the pleasures and advantages 
with which imagination may surround it. There is nothing to 
which I can more aptly compare it than the life of a large sheep 
farmer in the pastoral districts of the old country. For while 
the occupation differs widely, tliere is often the same solitude, 
the same distance from town and market over difficult roads, the 
same want of society and of the smaller comforts and elegancies 
of civilized life, and the same general roughness of exterior cir- 
cumstances. Save in the vicinity of towns, where the planters 
sometimes build houses and ride out to their plantations, or some 
famous old homesteads in tlie country where the wealth of a 
former generation has erected mansions and offices more in the style 
of the rural gentry than of the farmers of England, the planters 
for the most part live in plain log-houses, with a wide open liall 
running through the middle of it from a verandah in the front to 
a dining apartment and kitchen in the rear. The temperature is 
so mild in winter that all open arrangements for admitting air 
are tolerable, while in summer they are supremely desirable ; 
and when the cold winds blow, or a brief spell of frost sets in, 
great log fires are kindled on the hearths, and blaze and glow as 
" in the brave days of old." The dwelling-houses, besides having 
more or less well-chosen sites, are usually surrounded by a 
spacious courtyard, snake-fenced on its four sides, with stable for 
saddle and buggy horses, smoke-house, cotton-shed, corn-cribs, 
and uncovered pens for feeding milch cows and other select 
portions of stock, ranged round the exterior of the yard, and 
giving rise to other little mazes of snake-fencing. Cabins for 
the negro domestic servants and other right-hand persons about 



CH. xviii.] STATE OF ALABAMA. Hi) 

the planter are also put up near the homestead, so that, with 
a kitchen garden and peach orchard at hand, the log-house 
becomes the centre of a considerable establishment. The planter 
has lew white people about him. When he has talked, morning, 
noon, and night, with his overseer, or is visited by a neighbour, 
he has exhausted the conversational resources of the place ; for 
the negroes, though most respectful and polite to their employers, 
and not without a humorous side, do not add much to " the feast 
of reason and the How of soul." If the planter be a married 
man, the usual fountain of domestic joys opens to him in the 
wilderness of life, and new sources of economy and well-being 
spring up around him with marvellous richness and contentment. 
The planter may grow cotton, and some hog and corn, but it is his 
wife who makes the plantation flow with oil and wine, milk and 
honey. Matrimony and planting are linked together by indis- 
soluble laws of nature, and herein probably arises one of the 
present ditticulties of cotton-growing in the iSouthern States. 
tSuch is the progress of railways, towns and travel, and of a 
taste for luxury and gaiety, and all the effervescing pleasures 
and enjoyments of artilicial society, that heroines willing to 

"Scorn delights and live laborious dajs" 

on a cotton plantation are not so plentiful as they were in former 
times. Both young men and young women here discover much 
fondness, if not ambition, for city life, and for some form of 
emergence into the great world without ; and the one sex pull 
the other after them. The old couple, tottering on the verge of 
life, are often found struggling with the embarrassments of the 
time, and their sons far away from them in cities ; while the 
younger bachelors, who have shown a good example in one 
respect, and are unable to do the same in another, spend on their 
plantations, as any one may imagine, a rough and hard time of it. 
But with or without mistress, there is no idleness on one of 
these great cotton farms. As soon as a very early breakfast is 
over, the planter will have saddled horses in the courtyard, and 
ask you to take a ride " round " with him. A ride " round " 
a plantation of 2,500 acres is a good day's journey, but the 
weather at this season is here usually fine and invigorating, and 
an excursion on horseback, with everything new to look at, is 
very pleasant. On getting out from the labyrinth of gates and 
fences, it becomes a ride over open country and through bits of 
woodland, amidst wide-spreading patches of Indian corn and 
cotton, and undulating sweeps of long sedgy grass, broken here 
and there on the slopes by raw cuts and gaping blood-red 
wounds inflicted by the weather. These rolling tracts, when not 
under the plough, would be fine pasture lands on a farm in 
•England ; but they are here simply a measure of the insufficiency 



120 TOW'N CREEK. [ch. xviii. 

of labour and inattention to stock. A few stray cows belonging 
to the negroes are the only cattle seen as one brushes through the 
far-extending sedge. Yet on this side and that, near the stead- 
ing, one's eye does fall sometimes on bright green swards, where 
some choice animals are feeding with much zest. These are 
fields of rye or barley, sown in September, and now closely 
cropped by horses and mules, to shoot up again with new 
strength and tenderness in spring ; or fields of clover in their 
first or second year, on which the stole and blade of this finest 
of grasses lie thick over the soil as a carpet. There need be no 
want of sweet and succulent herbage at all seasons on these 
Yalley plantations. But corn and cotton, and cotton and corn, 
as one rides on, throw everything else into the shade. These 
crops are grown in alternate lots over large spaces of ground 
without intermediate fences, cotton one year and corn the next 
— this being the prevailing idea of rotation. But corn grows 
anywhere, and requires but little labour, and there are favoured 
spots for cotton down on " the bottom " where some creek flows 
along fine marginal stripes, and round loops and semi-islands of 
rich and dark-coloured land, where the favoured commodity has 
the preponderance. The negro " quarters " now begin to appear in 
rows of cabins, usually placed on the edge of the wood forming 
the boundary of the plantation, and under the system of free 
labour rapidly becoming little farm steadings., with corn-cribs 
and hog and mule pens of their own. It was usual in slavery 
times to concentrate the " quarters," and the cribs, and the mule 
stables, near the homestead. But under tlie free contract, by 
which the negro field-hand has become a sharer of the crop, 
and loves to have a mule of his own to ride on Sundays and in 
idle times of the year, it is found convenient to spread him and 
the necessary animal more about, near his work, where, if so in- 
clined, he may protect both his own and his employer's property 
— which arrangement, expedient as it seems, and on the whole 
may be, has created a new difficulty to the planter; for the 
negro is not remarkably honest, and has such obtuse ideas 
generally on the precise relation of mcum and tuum, tliat his 
master's share of the corn and cotton, when stored widely round, 
does not always appear to him anywise radically different from 
his own. But a man who has a large interest should be honoured 
with a large confidence and responsibility, and this general 
ethical principle has its sway here meantime too. The negroes 
toiled in gangs or squads when slaves, and they toil necessarily, 
though under much less control of the planter, in the same form 
still. A strong family group, who can attach other labour, and 
bring odd hands to work at proper seasons, makes a choice, if 
not always attainable, nucleus of " a squad." The picking time 
is the testing-point of labour in the cotton-fields, and that time 



CH. XVIII.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 121 

is now, or ouglit to be, nearly over. One lo.ses mucli of the 
charm of this cotton country towards the end of the year. It 
should be seen when the tall Indian corn.stalk, stilU luscious, is 
nodding under the weiglit of its golden pods, and the cotton- 
shrub, still a mass of green, is bursting into white globules, 
which play and flash in the gorgeous sunlight like pearJs amidst 
a frippery of leaves. But the third round in cotton-picking has 
now been made, on all plantations whose labour is well up to 
time, over tlie spreading areas of something red and brown, and 
dying under maturity and " snaps " of frost into a ground of 
colour uudistiuguishable from the earth beneath. Yet there are 
laggard squads on the cotton-fields, and the planter tells one 
that he " developed " two hundred pickers yesterday, and expects 
to "develop" nearly as ^ many to-day (though, to one like me, 
looking at so much else over so large a territory, it seems some- 
what difficult to find them out) ; and he rides on, telling Jerry 
here that it is not good to leave the newly-burst boles, for he will 
have to go over the space again if he do ; and assuring Jemima 
there (a sonsy lass with a great profusion of bonnet), that the 
cotton shed on the ground may actually prove of some nse, and 
be worth picking up. Cotton-picking is really a serious business 
in these Southern States. I have seen cotton-fields liereabouts 
that have not been gathered even a first time. But every 
second bole which Jerry and Jemima gather np is their own, 
and the force of motive to labour and to all manner of frugal 
husbandry can no further go. If the negro does not work well 
now, one must be sorry for him. The planter gives the land, his 
stock and implements, working capital and credit, his skill, and 
plodding care and watchfulness from day to day for the chance 
of half the cotton which his hands may be induced to plant and 
till, or may think it worth their while to gather Mdien it is ripe. 
Our morning's ride may have discovered 500 acres of cotton-field, 
and when at the gin-house, on our return, we ask what the crop 
may be, the estimate seems to run betwixt 180 and 200 bales — 
the overseer holding out (the weather being so fine) for the big 
outcome, and the dubious planter, however willing to be con- 
vinced, adhering meantime to the more humble figure. Half 
a bale to the acre, which has been given me all through the 
Atlantic States as an average crop, is rather the maximum attain- 
able on any given acre than the actual aggregate result over a 
whole farm with all the contingencies of soil and season, and 
sluggard culture, with probably still more sluggard picking. 
The cotton gathered by the various squads is brought to the 
gin-house to be cleaned of seed and husk, and partially 
skutched and pressed into bales. The gin-house is a little 
embryo factory, in which there is a good deal of mechanical 
ingenuity. The wool, driven out from the gin like wreaths of 



122 TOWN CREEK.' [cii. xviii. 

smoke, is a sight to see. The ginning apparatus is sometimes, 
thougli rarely, driven hy water-p(j\ver ; and tlie planter, 
liaving abundance of mule power in the ginning season, is 
not very anxious on this point. ]jut tlie cotton from the gin 
is neither perfectly cleaned nor pei-fectly baled. The cotton 
bale of the plantation is about three times the size of the 
bale when it receives iVom steam power, with a touch as seeming 
light as a feather, its final squeeze in the seaports. If the bale 
could be despatched from the; jdantation as compressed as from 
the seaport, there would be much economy in bagging and in 
iron ties, and as great a reduction in inland as has occurred in 
oceanic rates of freight. Though I do not know that there is 
anything immediately practical in this remark, yet amidst all the 
buzz of the Southern people about cotton factories, and making 
yarns and cloths I'or tlie wcnid, one cannot but think that, if the 
economical process is to begin, it liad better begin at the begin- 
ning, and that any planter who made his bale of cotton the 
fittest for transport by land and sea, and pure enough for spin- 
ning almost right off, inscribing his name or trademark u])on it 
as warranty, might ])r()bably become illustrious, and would cer- 
tainly connnaud 10 or 15 cents a pound more for his product 
than anybody else ! lUit what a great stretch of imagination 
may all this be, when the planter cannot get his good land 
ploughed, or near enough of fence-rails made, or necessary 
housing put up, and has to content himself with the first rough 
bruise of the rich agricultural resources wasting around him for 
want of labour. Near the gin-house is a smithy and a cai|)en- 
ter's sho]), where the mules are shod, and the waggons kept in 
repair ; and there may be also a corn-mill on the place, with 
good grinding machinery which does valiant service to the 
jieighbourliood. All these departments are filled by black or 
yellow men of more tlian common ingenuity. There is a nucleus 
of mechanic art and manufacture on all largo cotton i)lantations ; 
but it is obvious that, if progress is to be made, the planter will 
have to call in a great deal of special white labour, handy me- 
chanics who can drive nails, make gates, mend ploughs and 
locks, work and right machinery, and put doors on hinges ; and 
daiiymcn and dairywomen, and herdsmen cunning in stock, by 
coming South would find many comfortable openings, and rise 
])robably in course of years to considerable fortune. So the 
planters begin to think and say. 

The live stock on a plantation, with the exception of a few 
bred horses, still consists for the most part of lialf-starved cows, 
and small brown and white two-year-olds which look as haggard 
and shaky as if they were already tliree^flore and ten — the pro- 
perty of the negroes, and pointed out dc>l'isively by the overseer 
as the " Dujliams " of the place. The country lacks the aspect 



cii. xvni.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 123 

of life and substance, therefore, which sheep and cattle give to 
well-handled farms. But there is one element of stock in which 
a cotton plantation is really great. The negro and negress, and 
the pickaninnies, who are not nearly so numerous as they are said 
to have been in slavery times, have not much comeliness to boast 
of. The mules, indeed, are handsome enough creatures, with fine 
traces of blood and culture in their busts and limbs, a preter- 
natural bigness of head, and a long, wis])y queue of a tail, quite 
in the style of a "girl of the period." But for the merry and 
lively beings of a cotton farm commend me to the hogs. They 
are of all sizes, shapes, and colours — a small, black, well-rounded 
Berkshire being the predominant breed. As we take a sboit 
cut through the wood, great families of them spring up among 
our horses' feet; they gallo]) in groups round the negro quarters ; 
they meet us in droves in the avenue and under the spreading 
oaks, and are always cheery, " gleg," and on the move. They 
have so great an abundance of territory, and so inexhaustible a 
variety of acorns — white, brown, and grey — to feed upon, that 
they seem not to know where to settle down, and to be always 
trotting on to some richer Texas or Colorado in a purely Ameri- 
can spirit of adventure and speculation. The whoop of a negro 
boy, late in the afternoon, brings troops of them from afar to 
various points of the plantation for a little feed of Indian corn, 
which sends them contentedly to bed for the day. But generally 
this lively animal is the latest heard at night and the earliest 
afoot in the morning. And in this month of December, when 
the air is cool and the previous night may have been a little 
frosty, and " killing-day " comes round, what a gathering of the 
lame, and aged, and dependent negroes of the plantation is there ! 
Old Sally, herself 2U-stones weight, has hurtled down, and 
has placed herself at the head of a dissecting table ; a bright 
brown woman, who would be comely but I'or very thick lips, 
which she spreads out more unhandsomely still by smoking 
a "baccy pipe, and her blind man, who lost his eyes by a powder 
blast many years ago in his master's service, and has been a 
pensioner ever since, and all their children ; poor old Bibb, 
whose shoulders are up to his ears, and whose woolly head and 
beard are quite white as if he were all coming out at last in 
cotton ; and many others who do no work now, all are down on 
hog-killing day, when there is much fatness about. Every plan- 
tation in possession of the old families has its incumbrance of 
negro paupers, who are fed out of the produce of the farm, and are 
treated with all kindness, which may last a generation, and then^ 
probably, disappear in the more sifting relations of free labour. 

The preference of the plantei's for hogs is easily accounted 
for. They require little tending, find most, of their own " grub," 
nmltiply rapidly, and are the best meat, except, perhaps, bear. 



124 TOWN CREEK. {en. xviii. 

yet found on this continent. The negroes are very fond of the 
big fat porkers, while the liner pigs make delicious hams. I 
have been several times asked of late, by tall drover-and-pork- 
butcher looking men from Kentucky, whether I wanted any 
meat, meaning hog, to which I have invariably replied, "No, 
thank you — plenty of that;" and the planters are coming more 
and more, since the war, to give the same answer, and to want 
neither meat nor corn from anywhere save their own farms. 

Yonder are those large tracts of sedgy weeds, dry and sunny, 
and swelling wave-like up to the edge of the woods, which one 
would like to see covered with hertls of dairy-cows and cattle, 
and flocks of sheep. But they require to be torn up by deep 
ploughs and clothed by much cultivation with finest verdure, 
before they can produce the milk and butter and butcher-meat 
which fetch exorbitant prices all through the South, and, if in- 
creased in quantity, as well as inq^roved in quality, would be a 
mine of wealth to the Southern farmer. His corn and cotton- 
land and negro labour meanwhile seem to tax the energy and 
patience of the planter to the utmost. Where the land is not a 
deep level bottom, one sees the washing effect of the two or three 
rainy months of the year in a poor stand of cotton along the 
knolls and slopes, contrasting with the rich crop in the fattened 
hollows. If the slope be anywise considerable, the rain cuts 
deep channels and gashes in the soil, and, rushing down, makes 
a terrible gurgle and commotion at some point where its various 
courses meet, as if a kennel of hounds had been unearthing a 
fox. These gullies are the plague and eyesore of the planter. 
But, after all, they seem mainly the result of shallow ploughing. 
The ploughs in use, with small shoe-shaped coulters, and horns 
little bigger than a child's wheelbarrow, turn over two or three 
inches of the surface, and leave a hard iron trail beneath that 
frets the roots both of corn and cotton ; and, refusing to absorb 
the heavy rain when it comes, forces it to fall into a passion, and 
to act with all this violence. Deep ploughing would no doubt 
cover a multitude of gullies, and probably double the crop on 
every iqiland plantation. 

The life of a cotton-planter, with all these cares and in these 
times, would be barely supportable but for the abundant occu- 
pation it gives to the mind, the opportunities it affords for 
wholesome exercise and field sport, and the ever fresh and 
natural charms of the country. Thfe farmers and farmers' sons 
are all good shots, and they smooth many a difficulty by pulling 
on their top-boots, and, taking their horse, gun, and pointer, 
sallying forth to shoot partridges, which are found in coveys of 
seven or eight in the corn-fields and the woods ; or by starting 
at early dawn to hunt wild geese and ducks round the islands 
of the Tennessee. 



CH. xviii.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 125 

Tlie plantations hereabouts debouch on the famous jMussel 
Shoals, which are fifteen miles in length, and have a fall of 
about 90 feet. The broad river has cut a channel over the flinty 
limestone, wiiich, following its natural strata on the land, forms 
a magnificent staircase, over which the great volume of waters 
descends in a series of gentle cascades. The wearing of the 
limestone in parts where it is softer than in others has formed 
what are called " chutes," through which boats pass, as through 
the eye of a needle, up and down. The roll of the river is heard 
all over the plantations, and from some points of the bluff the 
spectacle of what seems a sea of waters, studded with woody 
islets, swarming with wild fowl, and dancing in the sunbeams to 
its own shell-like music, sounding and resounding as it skips 
from one marble floor to another, is altogether exquisite. Many 
years ago a canal was made along the Shoals on the northern 
bank, but somehow has been allowed to fall into disuse and ruin. 
The Shoals are a complete obstacle to continuous navigation up 
river, and it would seem to be by a canal alone that this obstacle 
can be turned. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Till! Town tliat Jones built.- -lliot in a Li(|nor Saloon. — What the Planters 
complain oi'. Pay and Privileycw of the Neij roes. The J'lantation Bell.^ 
The (loetriiie of K(juality run to Seed. - riantin<f discussions in Jonesboro'. 
— Uad Whisky and other eoniniodities. — Need of Tarift' iicfonu. 

[Vallicy of TiiK Tknnksskk. — JoNEsnoRo', Dec. 19.] 

Jones is one of the greatest founders of towns in America. Tlie 
present borough of Jones must be the tenth or eleventh of the 
same name that have ah'eady passed under my observation 
without j)rovoking a remark ; but liaving wandered here more 
than once in quest of the postmaster, I may as well, were it only 
in respect to Jones, make a note of it. 

Jonesboro' consists of ten houses, two of which — neat little 
frame stores — are in course of erection, and cause the people 
in the neighbourhood to say, when they meet to tell and hear 
the news, that Jonesboro' is building up rapidly. The ten 
liouses are so arranged as to form a large scpiare, of which the 
ti'ack and depot of the Memphis and Charleston IJailroad is one 
of the sides, with wings of streets from the corners to the right 
and left. The ten houses of Jonesboro' are disposed, as may be 
judged, with considerable effect. There are merchants in Jones- 
boro' — grocery, hardware, and dry goods — and one always iinds 
lialf a dozen well-bred horses hitched in the square, and twice 
as many mules, saddled or waggoned, and, either way, having the 
art of standing still without tlie hitching jirocess which, despite 
its "cruelty to animals," a))pears to be one of the institutions of 
the Uniteil States. Bullock teams crawl about with cotton or 
timber to the depot ; strong mounted men come and go, calling 
for the iiostmastcr, with an air as if it were of little or no conse- 
quence whether they found him or not; and negroes are always 
dro])ping in on mules or afoot with little bags full of something, 
which they carry into the stores, and carry out again mostly 
empty. There are rich plantations round Jonesboro', but close 
on the other side of the railway track there are three or four 
thousand acres of as good and pretty land as one could wish to 
see, from which every vestige of fence and housing was stripped 



CH. XIX.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 127 

during tlie war, and all trace of cultivatitjii has now disappeared; 
and how the taxes on it are paid no (jikj .seems to know or care. 

But a great ujiroar arises in one of the ten houses, which, on 
Leing looked at, differs from all the rest, and has the appearance 
simply of an elongated caravan, raised on little pedestals of red 
Li'ick that might be juistaken for wheels. The riot in the cara- 
van at length bui'sts out thr<nigh one of the ends in a rabljle of 
men — hackways, sideways, fon'ways, and on all foui'S ])el]-mell — • 
yelling and whooping, throwing off their coats, S(piuring and 
drawing-pistols at each other, and in a very high state of animal 
excitement. The scene was rather alarming; but 1 was assured 
by an "intelligent negro" that it was only a little Lad whisky, 
the gas of which in the head must get off in this way every now 
and th(ui, and that no harm would arise. Nor did there; for, 
though some shots were fired, nobody was killed or wounded, 
and in a few minutes afterwards the coniLatants were embracing 
one another in the most tender and affectionate manner jjossible, 
and in a minute or two more had all, greatly sobered and relieved, 
slouched back into the caravan. The bacchanalians were white 
men, of the class of "cro])pers," who had be(;n tiyiiig thc^ir luck 
during the year in a crop of cotton on tlu; waste and semi-i'uined 
plantations about, and were taking the fall out (jf it in this 
fashion. 

The planters who come to Jonesboro', though not in the most 
cheery mood just now, are men who take a i)hiloso])hical and 
business-like view of their affairs and of the whole situation of 
the South. The fall of cotton does not pr(jlbund]y disconceii 
them, for the rapidly enlarging crop had i)r('i»ared them for a 
descending scale of j)rices, and the war in Juiroi)e is referred to 
as accounting in some measure UiV the depth and suddenness of 
the present decline. There is an opinion in the Northern States 
that the >Southern cotton-growers are an inert, unskilful race. 
There could hardly be a greater inistake; and the idea that 
cotton can be grown, and the ref^ources of the soil develo])ed, 
more successfully than l)y the men who have l)een studying and 
practising these matters all their days, must be discarded as a 
vain hallucination. One requires only to meet the cotton-plan- 
ters of the South, and to note the energ^y with which they act, 
and the care and diligence they ap]jly to their affairs, to feel that 
strangers coming in to farn), welcomed as they would be, must 
be largely indebted to the knowhidge and ex])erience of the resi- 
dents long engaged in the agricultural pursuits of the countiy.^ 

^ Amon^' the planters in this nei^^hljourhood to whom I have been iinlebted 
for much valuable conversation, I cannot oiuit a tribnte of admiration to (Jol. 
James Saunders, of Kooky Hill, a (gentleman of the most extensive informa- 
tion — agricultural, scientific, anfl political and whose vast stores of knowledge 
and experience are not more remarkable than their periect systematisation, and 



128 JONESBORO\ [ch. xix. 

The emancipation of the slaves is accepted with remarkable 
equanimity when one considers the overturn of personal fortune, 
and all the bitt(3rness of the war w^ith which it was associated ; 
and an expression of gladness to have now done with slavery, 
and to have touched some common ground of civilization, is 
often heard. But what the planters are disposed to complain 
of is that, while they have lost their slaves, they have not got 
free labourers in any sense common either in the Northern States 
or in Europe ; and, looking round here at Jonesboro', after a 
calm and wide survey, one cannot but think that the New Eng- 
land manufacturer and the Old England farmer must be equally 
astonished at a recital of the relations of land, capital, and labour 
as they exist on the cotton plantations of the Southern States. 
The wages of the negroes, if such a term can be applied to a 
mode of remuneration so unusual and anomalous, consist, as I 
have often indicated, of one half the crop of corn and cotton, the 
only crops in reality produced. This system of share and share 
alike betwixt the planter and the negro I have found to prevail 
so generally that any other form of contract is but the exception. 
The negro, on the semi-communistic basis thus established, finds 
his own rations ; but as these are supplied to him by the planter, 
or by the planter's notes of credit on the merchants in Jones- 
boro', and as much more sometimes as he thinks he needs by 
the merchants on liis own credit, from the 1st of January onward 
through the year, in anticipation of crops which are not market- 
able till the end of December, he can lose nothing by the failure 
or deficient outcome of the crops, and is always sure of his sub- 
sistence. As a permanent economic relation this would be start- 
ling anywhere betwixt any classes of men brought together in 
the business of life. Applied to agriculture in any other part of 
the world, it would be deemed outrageously absurd. But this is 
only a part of the "privileges" (a much more accurate term 
than "wages") of the negro field-hand. In addition to half of 
the crops, he has a free cottage of the kind he seems to like, and 
the windows of which he or his wife persistently nail up ; he has 
abundance of wood from the planter's estate for fuel and for 
building his corn cribs and other outhouses, with teams to draw 
it from the forest ; he is allowed to keep hogs, and milch cows, 
and young cattle, which roam and feed with tlie same right of 
pasture as the hogs and cattle of the planter, free of all charge ; 

the readiness with which he keeps them in command for practical use. Col. 
Saunders, who is advanced in years, was shot through the lung at the battle 
of Murfreesboro', and, that stormy crisis over, has enjoyed very good health 
since. He has been for some time conducting experiments in grape culture, 
and having found in the " Concord" grape a quality congenial to tlie soil and 
climate, is at present preparing several acres of new vine-ground. The 
" Concord" grape is almost black, of rather thick skin, but juicy and sweet, 
and possessing considerable native aroma. 



cii. XIX.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 129 

he lias the same right of hunting and shooting, with quite 
as many facilities for exercising the right as anybody else 
— and he has his dogs and guns, though, as far as I have dis- 
covered, he provides himself with these Ly purchase or some 
other form of conquest. Though entitled to one-half the crops, 
yet he is not required to contribute any portion of the seed, 
nor is he called upon to pay any part of the taxes on the 
plantation. The only direct tax on the negro is a poll-tax, which 
is Avholly set apart for the education of his children, and which I 
find to be everywhere in arrear, and in some places in a hopeless 
chaos of non-payment. Yet, while thus freed from the burden 
of taxation, the negro has, up to this period of " reconstruction," 
enjoyed a monopoly of representation, and has had all legislative 
and executive power moulded to his will by Governors, Senators, 
and Deputies, who have either been his tools, or of whom he 
himself has been the dupe. For five years past, the negroes have 
been King, Lords, and Commons, and something more, in the 
Southern States. 

But, to come back to the economic condition of the planta- 
tions, the negro field-hand, with his right of half-crop and privi- 
leges as described, who works with ordinary diligence, looking 
only to liis own pocket, and gets his crops forward and 
gathered in due time, is at liberty to go to other plantations to 
pick cotton, in doing which he may make from two to two and 
a half dollars a day. For every piece of work outside the crop 
he does even on his own plantation he must be paid a dollar a 
day. It may be clearing ditches, or splitting rails, or anything 
that is just as essential to the crops as the two-inch ploughing 
and hoeing in which he shambles away his time, but for all this 
kind of work he must be paid a dollar a day. While the landowner 
is busy keeping accounts betwixt himself and his negro hands, 
ginning their cotton for them, doing all the marketing of produce 
and supplies of which they have the lion's share, and has hardly 
a day he can call his own, the " hands " may be earning a dollar a 
day from him for work which is quite as much theirs as his. Yet 
the negroes, with all their superabounding privilege on the cotton 
field, make little of it. A ploughman or a herd in the old 
country would not exchange his lot for theirs, as it stands and as 
it appears in all external circumstances. They are almost all in 
debt ; few are able at the end of the year to square accounts with 
" the merchant ; " and it is rarely the planter can point with 
pride, and with the conscious joy of recording his own profit, to 
a freedman who, as the result of the year's toil, will have a hun- 
dred or two of dollars to the good. The soul is often crushed 
out of labour by penury and oppression. Here a soul cannot begin 
to be infused into it through the sheer excess of privilege and 
licence with which it is surrounded. 



130 JONES DORO\ [ch. xix. 

There is a large sweetly-toned bell in the courtyard of one of 
the plantations here. I would have given a quarter- dollar at 
any time to hear its soft and melodious peal sounding over the 
great silent valley, the almost oppressive stillness of which is 
broken only by the screaming railway engine ; but, save when 
the overseer went out after the dinner-hour, and gave a tap or two 
with his finger as a note of admonition to a few of his hench- 
men at hand, the great deep bell of tlie plantation was voiceless. 
It appears the negroes represented to " ]\Iassa " that the ringing 
of the bell was too "like slavery times," and should pass away, 
and so it has passed away accordingly. Poor "Massa" since 
the war has been humouring and bowing obeisance to " Sambo " 
in everything, till he scarc(jly knows whether anything of himself 
is left. If the negro field-hand were to ask him for his breeches 
and top-l)oots — nearly all that remains — there can be little doubt 
that the indispensable garments would be surrendered ! 

Yet it must be observed that the negroes on the plantations 
are by no means an exacting, violent, or menacing race. Their 
present excess of privilege has been gained almost without an 
effort on their part. They retain in many instances a genuine 
attachment and fidelity to " Massa." Their predominant feeling 
is " to live and let live," but such is their superstitious belief of 
the power of " Massa " to live largely anyhow that they are but 
too prone to carry their own living to a point of largeness which 
involves his entire extinction. A negro servant hereabouts, on 
approaching "Massa" to announce something, or ask for some 
supply or other, turns round on his heels in the awful presence, 
and with " bated breath and whispering humbleness " mumbles 
out his message in a jargon which nobody but a negro or a 
" Massa " can understand. The marks of servility are sometimes 
too deep to be wholesome betwixt one class of fellow-creatures 
and another. This external demeanour of the negroes, where 
they have everything their own way down to the possession of 
the land and its produce, is a consideral)le proof that they have 
been elevated by some " patent hoist " unknown to ordinary 
human experience, and that the complaints of influences and 
agitations extending from Washington outwards, with which this 
whole Southern country is ringing, have a substantial foundation. 
The principle of llepublican equality, which, in the days of 
"Washington and Franklin, had a broad and deep political signifi- 
cance, has been hammered out superficially in the United States, 
till serving another by any useful kind of labour in serving one- 
self has become a sort of sin, shame, and disgrace. The incon- 
venience of this demoralization is deeply felt throughout the 
Northern States. But here, among negroes in the South, where a 
man will often neither serve himself nor anybody else, the great 
doctrine of eq^uality has palpably run to seed, and all industrial 



en. XIX.] STATE OF ALABAMA. mi 

organization and social progress become well-nigh impossible. 
The " labour contract " of the negro field-hand on the cotton 
plantations presents a serious obstacle to the employment of 
wliite labour, which is beginning to be recognized as an urgent 
industrial necessity. The negro, all in all, is the best labourer 
in the cotton fickh the South is ever likely to have ; but if the 
resources of the plantations are to be developed, and cotton is to 
be produced with profit at such a price as the world will give for 
it, the labour of the negro must be largely reinforced by the 
labour of white men, both in agricultural and mechanical depart- 
ments, for which the black man has no specialty; and until the 
negro terms of labour be adjusted, how are the dairymen and 
dahywomen, the tenders of stock, the steam-plough ers and the 
artificers, so indispensable, to be placed ? 

The planters who come and go about Jonesboro', are deeply 
moved by such considerations ; but as these spring up in their 
minds with a rush, and are deeply agitating, they generally take 
some narrow and intensified form of expression. The prevail- 
ing impression of the planter, who finds it doubtful whether he 
can live on his own free and rich land, seems to be, that 
enormous thievery must be going on somewhere or everywhere. 
That he is stolen from, every hour of the day, and through every 
fibre of his ways and means, by the negroes, by storemen and 
advancers of money, by local governors, legislatures, and officials, 
and by the Federal tariff and taxation, and by the very "free" 
but meantime "unequal" Clovernment of the United States — all 
this is a sensation in the planter's mind rapidly hardening into 
an article of faith. There can be no doubt that the negroes 
first steal one another's share of the crop, and next the planter's 
by way of general redress. It does not readily occur here that 
the condition of slavery, in which the negroes were bred, was 
not the most favourable to the dawn of ideas of commercial 
right and obligation on wool-clad brains, and the negro pro- 
pensity to steal is commonly attributed to natural inferiority and 
propensity of race. On this point, there is probably truth on 
both sides. But the negroes steal, and when the planter has put 
his feet on the stove, and commenced to " whittle sticks " with 
the merchant, and a negro passes by with his bag to the back- 
shop, he gives a poke with his stick at the rib of the merchant, 
half in fun and half in earnest, and would really like to know 
whose corn or cotton that may be. The merchant, with eyes down- 
cast and the slightest possible purple mantling on his face, makes 
a semi-poke with his stick towards the rib of the planter, and says 
that the large crop, and everybody now growing, account for all 
the difficulties betwixt them. But why, interpolates another 
planter, if the. crop be so large, witli not more than a quarter 
bale an acre on the average over our best lands, should Congress; 

K 2 



132 JONESBORO'. [on. xix. 

luaintuiii the same tariff-duty as when cotton wool was 70 
cents the lb., rendering wliat was a protection of 40 per cent, 
to the Massachusetts manufacturer equal to a protection of 180 
per cent, now, and thus restrict, by the high price of cotton goods, 
the consumption of cotton even here at home ? This bold inter- 
rogator, when pushed to tlie wall, is preparcid to swear that the 
protected cotton manufacturers of the IJnited States have been 
struggling hard since the war to use a million bales of cotton a 
year, and cannot do it, and that there is not a negro on his place 
who has a cotton shirt to his back, the garment being too expen- 
sive ! These statements are astounding, but are nevertheless 
well borne out by statistics ; and one has hardly patience left for 
a third planter, void of all political ideas, and his shoulders bent 
fully down to the ground, who talks of dividing his farms into 
smaller allotments, concentrating the corn and cotton cribs 
within arm's grasp, and trying ])ost-rails instead of snake-fences 
as a protection against the thieving and wasting propensities 
of the negroes. AVIien the planters at Jonesboro' have warmed 
themselves with these discussions, there is one common comfort 
in which they subside at present, and that is that Kobert 
Lindsay, of the Royal burgh of Lochmaben, in Scotland, has 
been elected Governor of Alabama, and that the State Treasury 
and State credit, thank ITcaven ! are now safe. My own })re])os- 
sessions, I confess, are all in favour of the new CJovernor.^ The 
triumph of the Democrats in this and other States has been won 
by hard battles against ignorance and corruption, and marks the 
return of the white people of the South to a rightful and much- 
needed influence in the management of their affairs. 

Jonesboro' may grow into a considerable place, but it will 
always be associated in my memory, I fear, with bad whisky. 
The li(pu)r sold under this abused name in the United States is 
mostly bad, but in jdaces like Jonesboro' it attains its maximum 
of villanous compound, for which distillers and a class of people 
here called " rectifiers of spirits," of whose rectitude the gravest 
doubt may be entertained, should be called to dread account — a 
dreary drug, in which there is little or no whisky, producing only 

^ Mr. Lindsay Avas educated in the parish school of Torthorwnld, and after 
studying in the University of St. Andrews, where he had gained a bursary 
by cuiu})etition, emigrated to the United States about tlie year 1845. He 
taught a school for some time in Wihuington, N.C., but, qualifying liimself 
for the bar, removed to Alal)ama, and has practised as a lawyer in that State 
ibr many years. A man of probity, as well as learning and talent, his 
election as Governor is honourable alike to himself and to the peopU^ of the 
State. It is worthy of note that in Alabanux before the war, natives only were 
eligible to the office of (Jovernor. The Radical party, in giving new consti- 
tutional laws to the South, abolished this restriction, and opened the highest 
office in the State to foreign-born citizens. Otherwise Mr. Lindsay could not 
have been elected, and the Radicals themselves, perhaps, might have still been 
in power. 



cii. XIX.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 133 

vertigo, and ending, through all forms of" violent disorder, in 
cholera-morbus. Its mildest effect is a little fizzle in the system, 
followed by an aching void of brain and stomach not to be sup- 
plied, and subsiding through the whole inner man in a sensa- 
tion simply of general despair ! Bad whisky, though seldom or 
never seen in private houses, presides at the stores in dismal 
eminence over 1jad salt, bad knives and ibrks, bad boots and shoes, 
and all the varieties of " shoddy," the inferior quality of which is 
only surj)assed by their enormity of price. One requires to live 
a while in this country to learn the fearful cost a nation pays 
for the insanity of " protected manufactures." While cotton is 
bought in Liverpool at three or four cents per lb. above its 
price on the plantations, anything from Liverpool can only 
1)0 bought on the plantations at 200 or 800 per cent, above its 
value there. Lut there is one article of great repute among 
the Southern people — " J. & P. Coats' six-cord " — which is 
found placarded in the stores even of Jonesboro', as in general 
warranty that there is at least one sound thread left to hold by 
and to rally round. Were British manufacturers turning their 
attention to wants in this market, and battling with all the 
tricks of tariff legislation as the Paisley firm has battled, the 
scales of monopoly, with which business here is so thickly 
encrusted, might be pierced as with a thousand guns, greatly to 
the benefit of the American people and the advancement of 
American industry and national wealth. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Towii of Florence. — Traits of the War. — New Bridge over the Tennessee. — 
The Cotton Factory. — Abundance of Water-power. — Tariff* Duties on 
^lachinery. — Possibility of nianufaoturing Yarn in the South for Export. 
— Cypress Creek. — Natural Beauties and Characteristics of its Ravines. — 
The Dripping Springs. — The Plantations. — Opening for Dairies. — Severe 
Spell of I'rost. 

[Vallet of the Tennessee. — Florence, Jan. 5.] 

Flokence, a fine little town on the north bank of the Ten- 
nessee, was a favonrite point of occupation by the Federal troops 
in their raids through the Valley during the latter years of the 
war. A seat of courts of law, of churches, of schools and colleges, 
and surrounded by many nourishing plantations and wealthy 
families, it was in ante-war times a centre of learning, refine- 
ment, and prosperous trade, pleasant though rare to see in the 
Sonthern interior. The coiuitry round having sent to the front 
nearly every man able to bear arms, the Federals had a war, 
more or less stirring, with the women ; and much of Sheriuan's 
famous march must have been as easy as a parade through 
Broadway. The Confeilerates, in the weakness of their arms, 
made the Tennessee for some time a dividing line betwixt them 
and the invaders ; and the great In-idge which spanned the river 
at Florence fell an early prey to the war. There was known to 
be much cotton and other riches throughout the great A'alley, 
and a connnand in the Federal army in this all but unmanned 
and defenceless section of the South opened the path to fortune. 
The Confederates, as they fell back, adopted the usual war 
policy, now acknowledged to have been a mistake, of burning 
what was valuable lest it should tall into the hands of the 
enemy. Such of the Federal Generals as had an eye to business 
otfered to purchase stores of cotton if the owners would only 
show where they were, and connuercial ti-ansactions M-ere entered 
into betwixt " the wolf and the lamb " on this basis ; but the 
general effect of the action of the opposing forces was destruc- 
tion, and the darkness of night along the plain was often 
■wildly illuminated by the tiames of gin-houses and cotton sheds. 
Every rich planter's house became in turn the head-quarters of 



CM. xx.J STATE OF ALABAMA. 135 

some portion of the Federal forces, and the beauty of the site and 
the excellence of the water were greatly admired by big "Dutch- 
men," who came armed to the teeth, and stayed til) there was 
nothing left to eat, drink, or steal, and the charms of scenery 
failed to d<;tain tliese lover.s of Nature any longer. The Soutljeru 
people iriaintain, as a point of honour betwixt them and the 
North, that they were conquered by the German^ — Ijy tlie same 
military " swarmeries" of King William as have all this winter 
been making mincemeat of the French — and not by the Yankees. 
Anyhow, the havoc of war hereabouts was complete, and often 
purposeless, liridges over creeks, made at gi'eat cost and now 
much missed, were destroyed down to their lowest stone but- 
tresses for no njilitary end that can be conceived, inasmuch as 
the advance (jf troo}js could hardly be arxested by streams that 
have been forded daily by the country people ever since. And 
bands of robbers, called " Tories " — deserters from the armies, 
and other loose and desperate men — whom neither Federals nor 
Confederates could control, formed in the hilly regions, and 
watcliing their opjjortunity, came down into the plain and com- 
mitted atrocities more cruel, foul, and bloody than all.^ 

Florence is gi-adually recovering from this reign of terror and 
desolation, and while impressions of woe indelible have been left 
in the hearts of families, one external trace of devastation after 
another begins to disappear. The Memphis and Charleston 
liailway Company, whose road passes along the south bank of the 
Tennessee, hns re-opened a branch from Tuscumbia to Florence, 
and thrown a high bridge over the river, having a track for its 
trains atop, and another for the common traffic of the country 
underneath — one of the light iron structures by which Mr. Fink, 
engineer, of Louisville, has acquired much celebrity. The scene 
from this bridge is very beautiful. The Tenaessee, calmed down 
from its merry dance over the jNIussel Shoals into a deep channel 
a quarter of a mile Ijroad, moves placidly round islands and 
jutting points of promontories wooded to the water-edge, past 

^ The following atrocious outrage, narrated to me by a lady of Florence, a 
relative of the victims, is one of numerous acts of lawless violence at that 
troubled period : — A band of these " Tories " or marauders from the hills 
came one night to the place of an old planter in the neighbourhood of the 
town who was reputed to be rich, and in breaking into the house shot one 
young man dead and wounded another — his son and nephew — and then held 
the old man over a fire till he should tell them where his money was laid. 
He described to them a spot in the garden where he had concealed some 
money and silver plate. They made a search for it at the place named, but 
failing to discover it they returned into the house, swearing they had been 
deceived, and roasted the old man to death. The Federals, wlio were in 
power in the district at the time of this horrible event, executed a boy of 
respectable parentage in Florence, who was proved to have held the horses of 
the marauders while they were in the planter's house ; but the principals in 
the outrage made good their escape. 



1S6 FLORENCE. [cii. xx. 

massive walls of limestone, wliicli it has worn but cannot move, 
and ronnd curving bays stolen from the fat and yielding soil ; 
but with the boundary of land and water always so cleanly cut, 
and the river so ample, buoyant, and everywhere filling up the 
view, one might almost cherish the illusion that it was not so 
much the Tennessee that flowed as the islands and promontories 
and polished walls of rock that were afloat. It requires only a 
few yachts, with their white wdngs spread to the breeze, to give 
the picture extraordinary loveliness and animation. But the 
railway cars sweep across it several times a day, and steamboats, 
except when stopped by low water at the shoals farther down at 
Eastport, come up to the beach at Florence, where the land dips 
down into a bottom, and there discharge the wares and take up 
the cotton of the town. The Colbert Shoals near Eastport are 
not nearly so formidable as the Mussel Shoals, and it is upon 
them that the expenditure of the Federal Government is being 
made. It was customary in old times to put the cotton into flat 
boats on the Tennessee, and float it down to New Orleans at a 
cost sometimes of not more than a dollar a bale. With all the 
railroad facilities of the present day, transport is much more ex- 
pensive ; and so magnificent a waterway may be well worthy of 
being opened and improved. 

Behind Florence, which is situated on the edge of a fertile 
upland country, flows the Cypress Creek, a stream of spring-like 
purity and coolness, through winding ravines of great depth, 
and, while of almost enchanting natural beauty, aftbrding the 
grandest water-power probably ever seen in the same space of 
territory. Here, before the war, three cotton factories, of 23,000 
spindles, and supporting a white population of 800 souls, were 
established by a prosperous firm, which made money, and never 
was more thriviugi than when the great thunderbolt of civil 
strife burst over the United States. The Federal troops burned 
down all three factories, leaving only portions of the brick walls 
standing, and scattering the twisted machinery about as a 
common prey. Pleaps of iron rods are still lying on the ground, 
and little bits of fine and curious mechanism are seen in the 
courtyards of the jjlantations, and in all the negro cabins of the 
neighbom'hood. One reason of the prevailing desire in the 
Southern States to set up cotton factories is probably the un- 
sparing hostility displayed by the Northern armies to this branch 
of industry. They destroyed instantly and without remorse every 
cotton factory within their reach, and one can hardly harmonize 
the pure anti-slavery professions of the war party in the North 
with depr'^dations so systematically directed against establish- 
ments employing only free labour. One of the three ruined 
factories has now been rebuilt, and the business resumed with 
laudable energy by the sons of one of the former partners, who 



CH. XX.] STATE OF JLJBJMJ. 137 

have fnrnislied the factory with Tatham's self-acting Tniiles and 
other English machinery. Duties amounting to 8,000 dollars 
gold were paid on this imported material, and yet with all this 
dead weight it was deemed cheaper than American machinery. 
The factory makes shirtings and other common kinds of cotton 
cloth, but its chief trade is yarn, which is sold in considerable 
quantity to the country people for domestic manufacture. Forms 
of old-fashioned industry, which in England would now be labour 
thrown away, are here the highest marks of thrift and economy. 
The yarns of the Florence Factory sell Avholesale at 34 cents 
per pound, and pay the manufacturers better than cloth. They 
assure me that, with labour as cheap and efficient as in the 
factories of England, they could lay down yarns in Liverpool at 
about the same price ]3er pound as cotton wool in that market. 
The saving clause in this statement is so large that one can 
hardly bring it to any practical test. But the Messrs. Martin at 
Florence are meanwhile getting twice as much for their yarns as 
the price of cotton at LiverpooL The English factory operatives 
have the reputation here of doing twice as much work as the 
Southern operatives, though the latter are paid two to three 
dollars a day, and are apparently the same class of persons as fill 
the factories in the old country, rather impressing one by their 
sharpness and intelligence, and the delicacy of their manipula- 
tion. While perceiving all the difiiculty that besets cotton 
manufactures, and all other manufacture requiring much capital 
and labour, in the Southern States — the Kmited demand for sheet- 
ings and shirtings round a factory here, and the probability, in 
seeking a market outside and in retaining the necessary skilled 
labour on the spot, of losing much more than all the advantage 
in raw material — yet any one, knowing the great currency of 
yarns in the markets of Europe and Asia, must own that this 
question of the production of cotton yarn in the Southern States 
opens considerations of much interest. The Southern people have 
a hold of the cotton trade at the root, and the making of yarn 
runs naturally along the lower reaches of development, of which 
the first step is the production of wool on the plantations in the 
greatest manufacturing purity and perfection, which step once 
attained the other might be quite easy. Such commercial attain- 
ments are not realized without long, patient, and steady effort ; 
but, were there a Sir Eobert Peel at the head of affairs in this 
country, he might probably see in this direction a means by 
which the Southern States might be developed in twenty or 
thirty years with greatly more solidity than any Federal march 
to victory in the days of the war. Still what practical use just 
now of speculating on the chances of cotton manufacture in the 
Southern States, when labour has to be paid near a dollar for a 
shilling in order that the labourer may support a bare existence. 



138 FLORENCE. [en. xx. 

and a small cotton fcictory of some sixty looms lias to pay 8,000 
dollars gold on its machinery as a bonus, iueffective even for its 
avoAved purpose, to Northern iron and machine manufacturers ? 
The same blindness of protective fallacy, that is wiping out 
shipbuilding, wool culture and manufacture, and other branches 
of production for the use of the Americans themselves, is, of 
course, rendering it doubtful whether, with the "cotton belt" 
in their hands, tliey can produce with any profit even the raw 
cotton so greatly needed by others. 

The factory at Florence is driven by water-power, of which 
there is superabundance at all seasons. The dam of the other 
two factories remains intact beside their ruins, a little higher up 
the stream. Cypress Creek pursues so intricate a course through 
the winding ravines, and comes back so often to the point it has 
so lately left as if loth to leave such lovely sylvan haunts and 
be lost for ever in the waters of the Tennessee, that it is 
often difficult to say what part of it is up or down ; but through 
every successive ravine it flows in volume smooth and deep, 
forming natural reservoirs of water, which may be utilized to any 
imaginable extent. The only drawback on the lower reaches of 
the Creek is the backwater of the Tennessee, when it happens 
to be in high flood, as it was in 1867. Crossing in a skiff" below 
one of the dams, one is pointed to a board nailed to a tree, 
marking the rise of the water in the memorable " spate " of that 
year, probably 20 feet above the usual level of the water. But 
this is a very unusual occurrence, and the mills and gm-houses 
do not suffer much damage when it happens. The stream is full 
of fish, and a '' fresh- water salmon" of large size affords exciting 
sport to the angler, and is a luxury at table. On the warm 
summer evenings the factory operatives plunge into crystal pools 
floored with marble under green and spreading boughs, and the 
farmers' children frolic down the slopes towards the bed of the 
Creek, and under subsidiary rills have their shower-bath in deep 
grottoes where no eye sees them, and where all around seems a 
wilderness of foliage. Threading this maze of cypress ravines, one 
soon perceives their wonderful formation, and the manifold afflu- 
ence with which Xature has not only built them up, but seems to 
lavish upon them her choicest decorations and sweetest caresses. 
Along the bed of the Creek, in many parts, the limestone rock is 
exposed in massive walls, a hundred feet or more in height, with 
their bedding planes and vertical joints as distinctly marked as 
lines of masonry, in some places smooth and square as hewn blocks 
of marble laid a-plumb, and in others carved and rounded from 
joint to joint like the towers of some Norman donjon. The oppo- 
site bank, whether flat or steep, is sure to be a little peninsida, 
covered with oaks, poplars, sycamores, walnuts, chestnuts, hicko- 
ries, birches, ashes, maples, as if Dame Woodland had here shaken 



en. XX.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 139 

out her lap, and said, " There, now, take all." On the massive lime- 
stone bank of the Creek the same abounding wild wood prevails, 
and twisting its roots round limestone slabs that project far into 
the stream, besides issuing from crevices high above, sustains a 
lusty life on what seems all but nothing, and yet mounts up and 
mingles with the much lustier life of the table-land overhead. 
Here and there, on broad open spaces of the limestone wall, the 
springs bursting from their stony cells, and dripping down in 
myriad crystal drops, have gathered round them by mysterious 
chemistry a bejewelled verdure all their own. Numerous varieties 
of fern fold their feathery sprays, green as emerald, over pillows of 
velvet mosses, bright as cloth of gold, and " dewy with Nature's 
teardrops" lambent, as they fall from leaf to leaf, bosom in every 
opening bud, or form in sparkling rings round tiny buttercups 
and water-cresses, with the light of diamonds and precious stones ; 
while spicewood, honeysuckles, trumpet-vines, and countless wild- 
flowers love to come about these fontal shrines, to shed sweet 
perfume round their borders, and sport in careless festoons to 
their tinkling music. The deep bed of the Creek in these fairy 
spots opens out sometimes in wandering glades, sometimes 
in steep lateral ravines, where the forest trees grow in all their 
majesty, and prepare one for the magnificent woodland on the 
higher ground, spreading out now in expanses of copse, and now 
in green lawns and parks where sheep and oxen browse under 
ancestral oaks. The oak, of which there are half-a-dozen kinds, 
flourishes in all splendour here. Some I have measured are 12 
feet round the trunk. The parks are so thickly strewn with 
their leaves that these have to be gathered up and burned. But the 
pine, the cedar, the laurel, and other evergTeens, impart perpetual 
colour to the woods, and shine with lustre at this season amidst 
the leafless and ashy branches of other trees. I'lowering shrubs 
of various kinds — among others, " mountain laurel " and the 
" white fringe tree " (Chionanthus Virginica), so called from its 
white fringe-like flowers — spring up along the open banks ; mag- 
nolias, ever lovely in their glossy leaves, quite splendid when 
they send out their bunches of white flower, grow to a large 
size in the lawns ; and trailing vines are often met with in the 
woods. The muscadine, in particular, seems to take all the 
forest into rejoicing fellowship, and, looping its long arms round 
the lower branches of the great trees, hangs its fruit in tempting 
glee above the heads of the passers-by. Sometimes a muscadine, 
springing side by side with another tree, passes into a marriage- 
union in which the two become one, and, in return for the sup- 
port afforded to its leaping and blending branches, gives a new 
and often singularly fantastic grace to the whole form and figure 
of its spouse. The fruit of these wild vines is not without value. 
The planters' wives and daughters go forth in autumn, with 



140 FLORENCE. [cu. xx. 

a negross or two, and literally gather grapes from thorns, as far as 
any labonr of culture is concerned, and make sweet wine that 
strengthens the heart of man and hoy. I have seen this brilliant 
scene at the deadest season of the year, hut it requires little imagina- 
tion to discover the ahounding fertility and fragrance of the land. 

The plantations stretch down from the -woodland to the Ten- 
jiessee, and have many still rich and fertile bottoms ; but much 
of the soil, though deep and genial enough at heart, has a hard 
and M^asted look — the result of shallow ploughing and constant 
corn and cotton cropping, without manure, or subsoiling, or any- 
thing to restore exhausted elements. A large portion of tlie cotton- 
fields, therefore, yields an inditferent crop. Even in slavery times 
one bale to the three acres had come to be an average product, 
but it is very doubtful whether more than a quarter bale to the 
acre is now produced, taking the plantations of this section 
through and through. The land is not efficiently wrought, and 
the planters see many dithculties in getting it into a better system 
of cultivation. One often meets with signal instances of failure. 
On one jilantation rented to the negroes for one-fourth the crop, 
with probably GOO acres under cotton, the proprietor will not 
get more than 25 bales. The season was too wet in the early 
part, but the weak culture and the weak system of labour, 
handed down from the days of slavery, are the chief causes of 
this poor production. Some of the planters are giving up cotton 
as a main dependence, and turning their attention to wheat anil 
other small grain. The soil is a good red tiltli for wheat, with 
limestone underneath ; clover also grows luxuriantly, and dairy- 
cows might be fed and nourished with great advantage. The 
relative profit of wheat or cotton to the farmer, at present 
prices, may be briefly stated. The land, cultivated as it is, yields 
20 bushels of wheat per acre, at one dollar per bushel, or 20 
dollars an acre; cotton gives 150 lbs.au acre at 12 cents per 
lb., or 18 dollars ; and Indian corn yields from 25 to 30 bushels 
an acre at 75 cents per bushel, or from 18^ to 22^ dollars. So 
that cotton, unless the product per acre be much increased, does 
not compare well with other crops requiring much less labour. 
It takes the gilt from cotton-culture as a money-making specu- 
lation to learn, further, that the plantations here were bought 
from the Government in 1818 at a price of 25 dollars an acre, 
and when put to sale do not bring so much now after much im- 
provement and fifty years of cultivation. 

It is to be regretted, when good butter fetches 40 to 50 cents per 
lb. in towns like Florence, and not very good is brought down from 
Northern dairies, that the planters do not give more attention to 
dairy produce. "While this neglect goes on from year to year, 
the people are tickled and anmsed by Yankee inventors, who are 
always coming South with some patent mousetrap or other. One 



CH. xx.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 141 

is just now pressing tlic sale of licences to use a patent Tor 
making eight ])ounds of butter out of a gallon of milk from the 
cow. lie has found, in short, by some admixture, how to con- 
geal the whole bfjdy of the milk into make-believe butter. Every 
plantation might have a dairy, and in cultivating grass and 
clover, and applying a deep plough and farm-manure, the planters 
would find new sources of profit, and speedily restore the old 
fertility in cotton which has so far sensibly declined. Along the 
Valley east and west from this point there are famous farming 
lands, all in the same state, and all capable of the same great 
things. It is deplorable that the country should want anything 
good to eat from any other place. 

The Valley of tlie Tennessee offers little difficulty to European 
labour. The heat is not extreme in summer, and a beautiful 
and temperate fall, lengtliening into December, is often fol- 
lowed by a winter bracing enough. Alfred, a gentle negi"o-man, 
who has crept noiselessly into my room at dawn, and lit up his 
huge log fire, one moi'ning lately ventured up to the window, and 
arousing me, asked that 1 should look out at something wonder- 
ful. Snow, that would ha^'e been pronounced good snow in the 
Arctic circle, was falling thick, and to the question whether there 
were any danger of it reaching above the roof of the house, 
Albert replied only by a wondering face, and long before night 
all trace of snowfall had disappeared. But there has been a 
really Borean sj)ell of frost since. It set in on the 2()tli, froze 
up the ponds at the rate of an inch a night, and driviiig the 
mocking-ljirds to the windows, the boys to their skates, and the 
hon-vivants to their " egg-nog," was really as intensely cold as I 
have experienced iu very northern latitudes. The negroes, for 
two dollars a day, or as much whisky as they could drink, were 
persuaded in many cases to fill the ice-houses. As for the 
" Dripping Springs " on the Creek, they were as completely 
transformed as if they had been the subject of an incantation. 
^Vhere the water flowed down in numerous thread-like rills tliero 
were now solid pillars of ice ; where it distilled like dew there 
were broad and Hashing surfaces like mirrors, resting on bureaux 
of rock chased as with silver, and windows looking into deep 
recesses like conservatories, where mosses lay stiff and stark in 
crispy winding-slieets, and leaves appeared like mere daubs of 
colour upon glass ; while around were [lijje-like instruments, 
with keys and convolutions — organs, it may be, of an " eerie 
music" that would almost justify the fable of ^liinchausen ; 
but as I did not hear the tunes played either when " John Frost " 
was casting his spell, or when fairer Sprites came and blew a 
more genial blast, I forego the luxury of an imaginary description. 
The frozen fabric, at all events, quickly disappeared. The thaw 
came on the 27th, and the air of sjjring in two or three days 
breathed with balmy warmth over the land. 



CHAPTER XXL 

Corinth in Mississippi. — The Soil and Surroundings. — A Cotton Manufoc- 
turing Scheme. — The Country southward on the Mobile and Ohio Rail- 
road. — The " Prairie Land." — Okolona. — A large Plantation on the 
" Prairie." — Preference of the Negroes for their old Masters. — The Share 
and Wages Systems. — The late Robert Gordon. 

[Corinth and Okolona, Miss. — Jan. 6-10.] 

TiiR road from North to South Alabama is, meantime, somewliat 
indirect, the railways not having formed connections through the 
hilly districts immediately south of the Valley of the Tennessee ; 
and the usual mode of turning this difficulty is to pass along 
westward to this point in the State of IVIississippi, where the 
Mobile and Ohio Railroad intersects the ]\Iemphis and Charleston. 
I postpone, therefore, further consideration of the " Alabama 
claims," until, getting round through a very interesting section, 
including the famous " prairie land," of Mississippi, I can take 
them up at another stage. 

Corinth was the scene of much strife during the war. The 
Federal and Confederate hosts surged and resurged round this 
railway point for several years ; and though there was not much 
heavy fighting at Corinth — the great battle of Shiloh having 
been fought at some distance — yet the contending troops pushed 
each other in and out of the little place, and sat down all round, 
and ate and burnt up every green thing. The country over miles 
on every side is completely stripped of timber. There is abun- 
dance of fair good land, with an immense bed of greensand marl a 
few feet beneath the siirface, thickly charged wdth fossil remains, 
and forming almost too strong a manure for raw use, save with 
the utmost caution. Many of the landowners have been ruined, 
and cultivation is carried on under more than the usual diffi- 
culties of a state of transitional chaos and embarrassment. 
Some of the plantations are rented out, Init to little good account. 
The rentere take a crop, do nothing for the land, and, indeed, not 
uufrequently burn up the fences before leaving, so that the 
owners profit little by the three or four dollars an acre, or the 
one-third or one-fourth the crop, agreed upon as rent. Other 
plantations are being broken up into small -farms, occupied by 



en. XXI.] BTATE OF MISSISSIITI. 143 

white people, who are taking the cultivation in room of the 
negroes, less numerous in this neighl)ourhood than hefore the war, 
many having moved down to the riclier lands of South Alal)ama 
and the Mississippi Lottom. From 4,()UU to 5,000 l)alesof cotton 
are delivered annually from the neiglibourhood at the de])ot in 
Corinth. The old planters, in trying to sell their lands in order 
to get extricated from debt, sometimes succeed. Two hundred 
acres, with valuable improvements, were recently sold at 15 
dollars an acre, which were bought many years ago at Vl\ dollars. 
But some of the owners near the town hold out for mucli larger 
terms. Every railway junction in this country with a dozen or 
two of houses is fondly believed, by tliose who have the deepest 
interest in so believing, to be tlie destined seat of a great city ; 
and, by putting up the price of land and houses, they may often 
indefinitely postpone the desired result. 

A " North j\lississippi Cotton and Wool Manufacturing Com- 
pany," organized here about eighteen months ago, was to have a 
million dollars of capital, to be taken up in 100-dollar family 
shares over several adjoining counties, and subscriptions were 
made to a considerable amount. That in the most desolated 
districts, where the land cannot be brought into cultivation for 
w^ant of capital and labour, a proposition should be made to leap 
at once into cotton manufacture with all its elaboi'ate processes, 
is a remarkable proof how deeply the manufacturing idea has 
imbued the minds, and the iron of Northern Protectionist injustice 
has entered the souls, of the Southern people. It is with regret 
that one thinks — after all the Southern States have passed through 
— of the delusions to which this sense of wrong and fervour of 
feeling may lead, and the losses and disa])pointments with which 
it may be accompanied. The capital of the " Noi'th Mississippi 
Manufacturing Company " has been struck down to a quarter of 
the sum at first proposed, and this has not yet been wholly sub- 
scribed. A very neat building has been put up for an office, 
and the company is busy burning bricks for the future factory, 
and is in treaty for the supply of English machinery. The 
Colonel at tlie head of the enterprise has a notion that, by taking 
cotton in the seed, making cotton-oil, and using " Clement's 
patent " for cleaning the cotton-wool without ginning on the 
plantations, the company will be able to produce goods and yarns 
to beat the world. As there is no water-power here, the factory 
must do its work by steam, with an uncertain supply of coal 
from Pittsburg in Pennsylvania, at a monopoly price. The 
population in and around Corinth is only a few thousands. 
There is a Confederate Oi-phan Asylum in the county, in which 
there are 300 orphans — the children mostly of soldiers killed 
in the war, many of whom, as they grow up, it is supposed, 
would make good factory operatives. This institution derives its 



144 OKOLONA. [cH. xxi. 

revenue from voluntary subscriptions, and appears to have been 
most laudably and liberally supported, tliougli some of the 
little inmates are taken round the country to sing at concerts as 
a means of eking out the funds. 

The country south of Corinth soon passes into the ordinary 
woodland of the American continent, where clearings are going 
forward, and comfortable homesteads, with fields of corn and 
cotton, and mule and hog pens, are being chopped out of the 
primeval forest. There is little swampy ground ; the timber is 
sound and stately ; and the soil, in every opening of the forest, 
has an aspect of fertility. The Mobile and Ohio Eailroad, in its 
straight track north and south, strikes at every ten to fourteen 
miles little towns and villages, often prettily situated, whither 
cotton is brought, where country merchandising goes on, and 
country acquaintances visit one another at the end of the season 
and tell how the " picking " has got on in their respective dis- 
tricts. But the forest here overshadows all until near Okolona, 
seventy miles south from Corinth, where the train suddenly 
darts into an open country, in which the woods recede and 
all but vanish from the view, and the iron wheels roll with 
a more airy sound over an elevated plain, which is the famous 
" prairie land " of Mississippi. 

Okolona was all but totally destroyed in the war. Only two 
or three houses and a few gable-ends were left standing. The 
whole place might have been bought for 5,000 dollars on the 
surrender of the Confederate forces, but no one believed that 
Okolona could be Okolona any more. It is now a well-built 
town of two or three thousand inhabitants, with a long street of 
brick stores, and many offshoots on the east, towards the railway 
depot, and a long avenue westward, with planked sideways and 
elegant frame buildings, in which those who aspire to live respect- 
ably in family know so well here how to reconcile taste and 
comfort with the actual situation. Large courtyards behind 
several of the stores 'are filled with cotton bales, and the space 
set apart for hitching nags and mules is like a horse-fair on any 
market-day in Okolona. One must take a few canters here- 
abouts in order to know something of the richness of the prairie 
land of Mississippi, 

The soil is a dry deep red loam — what is called, in the language 
of the country, " a buckshot soil," with a good deal of lime in it. 
When the overseers and negroes brush it from their pantaloons, 
it has a tendency to go up instead of down, and always keeps 
hanging about. Underneath there is a great bed of white and 
easily pulverized rock, known as "rotten limestone." Every acre 
is cidtivated or cultivable. Little slips of forest land break 
the monotony of a plain not quite level, but agreeably undulat- 
ing, and, as one advances from point to point, there is usually a 



CH. xxr.] STATE OF MTSSISSIPFI. 145 

rim of Avoods all round the horizon, but always at a respectful 
distance, and the landscape opens out freely from all entangle- 
ment into broad spaces of rich arable territory. This general 
character of country prevails over thirty to forty miles in length, 
and probably, as far as I have explored it, half as many in 
breadth. At Artesia, forty miles south from Okolona, the 
country passes rapidly into the " piney land " characteristic of so 
much of the Atlantic slope, and of the southern section of the 
Gulf States. The " prairie land " of Mississippi, however, is a 
^^reat cotton region. From 10,000 to 12,000 bales are received 
annually at Okolona alone, but all the railway depots of the dis- 
trict, and indeed of the whole Mobile and Ohio line from Corintli 
southward, I have found full of cotton bales. The railway com- 
pany, while forwarding cotton northward with all despatch, 
.seems to have difficulty in transporting the much larger quantity 
destined for the Mobile market and for shipment thence to 
Europe, and, sure of this freight, allows it to accumulate and lie 
exposed in the open air till the " more convenient season." One 
of the first settlers of this part of the country was Eobert 
Gordon, an emigrant from the province of Galloway, in Scotland, 
some fifty odd years ago, who, anticipating the action of the 
Federal Government, negotiated with the Old Queen of the 
Chickasaws, and became the purchaser of large and choice tracts 
of land on the " prairie," which he brought into cultivation. 
Mr. Gordon, before the war, was reported to be worth a million 
and a half of dollars. Like many other old people of mark in 
the South, he sank into the grave soon after the close of the 
great struggle, and was succeeded by his only son. Colonel James 
Gordon, who, though not so rich a man as his father, has still as 
much territory in active and productive cultivation as might 
satisfy a prince. One of his plantations, five or six miles from 
Okolona, is in fine order, and forms a favourable sample of the 
fertility and culture of the " prairie." It is 2,000 acres in 
extent, of which 500 acres are woods completely enclosing the 
great garden of 1,500 acres, rising and falling in gentle undula- 
tions just enough to spread it out to the sun and rains without 
being scorched by the one or washed and gullied by the other. 
This immense space is a uniform round of corn and cotton 
divided only by waggon tracks and a few long ditches, the main 
arteries of the plantation. Save the exterior fence, and the usual 
snake-fence labyrinth round the buildings, the corn and cotton 
fields are open, and succeed each other like the patches of various 
culture in a nursery, the drills being laid off" with a sagacious 
eye to the fall of the ground, so as to let in the sun and secure a 
natural drainage when heavy rains fall. While the crops are 
growing, the cattle are kept back or penned in folds ; but, when 
the Indian corn has been gathered, they are let loose, and enjoy 

L 



14^ OKOLONA. [cH. xxi. 

all winter an abundant pasture. There does not appear to have 
been a bad patch of cotton on the phuitation ; the battle with 
the grass had been fought with great vigour in summer, the soil 
betwixt the rows being now clean and red as drills in a garden. 
The consistency of large plantations with good cultivation is 
well marked on this place. Some four or five hundred acres 
only of the plantation had not been in crop during the past 
season, but will be overtaken this year, the supply of labour on 
this plantation being abundant. The old proprietors have an 
advantage in this respect over new planters. The negroes seem 
to prefer their employment, and, after various changes, come 
back and settle down to work in their old places ; while strangers 
have often to hire labour from a distance without being snre of 
its calibre, and are apt to get into dispute and difficulty with 
labour contractors and overseers. It is a remarkable proof of the 
progress made towards better management under free labour, 
that Mr. Gordon lost 24,000 dollars by his cotton crops the year 
after the war when the price was high, but has been making it 
better every year since under declining values. The system of 
paying the negroes by half-share of the crops prevails in this as 
in other sections, and one negro on this plantation wdll have a 
thousand dollars to the good at this time, after settling all claims 
upon him. But this is a rare exception to the general rule, and 
the negroes, with opportunities of money-making seldom enjoyed 
by labour in any part of the world before, scatter all behind 
them in a careless spirit, and more frequently close the year in 
debt than with clear books. The " balance in favour," when 
rarely made, is connnonly but a ticket-of-leave for a longer and 
more spendthrift holiday than would otherwise be possible. The 
negro is one of the most liberal buyers in the world. Stores 
exercise a kind of charm over him, and wdien he looks round on 
the wealth of wares he is ready at once to fling every dollar out 
of his pocket, and to open a credit account with boundless 
faith in the future. The share system has one merit, inasmuch 
as the gain of the negro is thoroughly identified with that of the 
planter. When the negro field-hand gains nothing the planter 
loses much, and the small, unwrought, and neglected crops that 
keep the negroes in debt and raggedness utterly break him on 
the wheel, and "burst him up." The planters have unusual 
pleasure under the share system in pointing out the good hands 
that have made a profit at the end of tlie year. Yet it is doubt- 
ful whether the share system will survive ; and if it be swept 
away, the result will be due to the folly of the negroes. One 
objection to it here, as elsewhere, is that the negroes will do 
nothing but the work immediately about the crops in wliicli 
they have a share, and that this line is more and more rigorously 
defined. If cattle stray into the corn and cotton fields, the 



CH. XXI.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 147 

negro will often only drive tliem from his own part of the crop 
into that of the neighbouring squad. As for fences in general, 
they are allowed without remorse to go to wreck. The planter, 
l)y a considerable extra expenditure on special labour every 
year, may contrive to keep them up ; but where he fails in so 
doing, the fences go from bad to worse, till the plantation is in 
danger of being deeply embarrassed or of sinking altogether. 
The money required to fence a plantation is considerable, and 
many fine tracts of land \m\e not yet recovered the total 
destruction of fences with which they M'ere visited during the 
war. A staff of white mechanics and special outdoor labourers 
would be necessary to secure to the negro such a share of the 
crop as would keep him easy and affluent. The only alterna- 
tive of the share system is payment by time wages, and under 
this arrangement every squad of negro labourers would require 
an overseer to keep them steadily at work, and get the value of 
the wages out of them. Otherwise, it is believed, the 'wages 
plan would be less profitable even than the share system. The 
best and most willing negroes seem to have little self-reliance, 
and never work so well as when they have a white man at their 
right hand to show them how to do it. 

Old j\Ir. Gordon established his head-quarters at Pontotoc, a 
little county-town some twenty miles north-east from Okolona, 
where the Federal Government had its first ofhce for the sale 
of lands in this State ; and there, on a site which had been the 
residence of the Indian Queen, built a stately mansion of timber 
sawn from the pine forest by hand. There were no steam saw- 
mills in the countr}^ at that time, and it took three years to build 
the future house of this branch of the Gordons. It is a plain 
bat spacious mansion of fourteen rooms, all very large, and 
having large cellars stored with the juice of " the hanging grape " 
— which, here abounding, gave its name in the days of the Eed 
men to the country round — and stables and offices, garden and 
vineyard, and a burying-ground near by under a spreading red 
elm sacred to family remains. There is a Scotch style about all 
M'hich strikes every visitor. Mr. Gordon was noted for hospi- 
tality, and the son in this respect is worthy of the sire. There 
is a large orchard free to all who choose to gather its luscious 
fruit, and a pack of foxhounds, the best in the United States, 
that lead many a " tally-ho ! " over wide plains and through 
forest tracks where the war-whoop of the Indian rose on the 
midnight blast in former tunes. The Colonel is an enthusiastic 
sportsman. The walls of his shooting-box are covered with the 
skins of bears, panthers, wild cats, and other /t'roe natura: of the 
prodigious sort, the trophies of hunting expeditions on his plan- 
tation in the Mississippi bottom. The glossy plumage of wild 
fowl serves to soften somewhat these barbarous elements, and 

L 2 



148 OKOLONA. [cH. xxi. 

huge deer antlers, while adding to the ornament of the cottage, 
form useful resting-places for guns and fire-arms of almost every 
pattern and device. As if hunting bears and panthers in the 
cane-brakes of the ]\Tississippi were not enough, I have found 
the Colonel meditating, well satisfied with the improved working 
of his plantation, a trip to South Africa, where a Gordon Gum- 
ming and a Chaillu have made themselves famous, and in gorillas 
and other monsters of the wilderness have discovered subjects of 
sport worth writing about. Old Mr. Gordon gave his seat at Ponto- 
toc the name of " Lochinvar," in memory of the ancient seat of 
the Gordons, on the Solway, famed in song and story. The same 
veteran settler of JNIississippi founded the town of Aberdeen, 
several miles south from Okolona, with a branch road from the 
Mobile and Ohio. Mr. Gordon woidd have called this place 
Dundee, but a neighbour, meeting him one morning, said, " Wall, 
INlr. Gordon, I believe you are to call this city ' Dundy.' " " Xo, 
I am not," said the offended Scotsman, who saw at once that the 
pronunciation of Dundee would not transplant to American 
soil, and so he gave the more northern city the honour of a 
Transatlantic namesake. Aberdeen is a thriving town of four 
or five thousand people, and on Saturday — a market day — was 
astir with country people, hitching up their horses and buggies, 
buying and selling, and taking general possession of the stores 
and their contents. 

One is struck by the number of active young men who have 
applied themselves manfully to the cultivation of the farms in 
this section of the country. They move about in work- day attire 
over long distances, and display a confident and hopeful spirit. 
But they say that 15 cents per lb. for cotton is necessary to 
pay the expenses of cultivation as affiiirs are at present manage- 
able. The war is seldom spoken of, and sympathy for the traces 
of it, everywhere visible in amputated arms and limbs, may 
sometimes be carried beyond due bounds. Southern gentlemen 
have a singular habit of wearing their coats without putting their 
arms in the sleeves. I have caught myself several times in a 
full How of tender feeling for the gallant fellows who had lost 
both arms in the war, when it soon after became clear that the 
generous emotion was wholly misspent and thrown away. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Stoppage on the Railway. — "Doctoring" the Engine. — A Word of Advice to 
Railway Companies.— The Town of Meridian.— Supposed traces of Coal. 
— The " Ku-Klux-Klan "—its Rise, Progress, and Decline.— Difficulty of 
finding Teachers of Negro Schools, 

[Meridian, Miss. — Jan. 11-13.] 

I AERIVED at Meridian on Sunday morning at half-past four, 
albeit the train that brought us was due shortly after midnight. 
The fact is that, the night being somewliat frosty, the engine 
took a fit of wheezing, and finally stood still, two hours or more, 
in the woods about thirty miles north from this point. The 
scene, I admit, was very charming. The track ran along an 
embankment of moderate elevation, from which the land, on one 
side, rose in gentle ridges of Indian corn-stalks, and spread away, 
on the other, in a plain of woodland, thinned, grassy, and orna- 
mental as a park. The moonlight was clear almost as noonday, 
and made the lamps in the cars blink like dissipated owls. When 
an hour or two had passed in this delightfully sequestered SY)ot, 
a vague desire to embrace the shadows of the trees, and follow 
the unknown but all the more attractive meanderings of the 
brooks, stole over both mind and body. So a few of us stepped out 
on to the embankment. The head of the train was a long way 
ahead, and getting down on a railway track in moonlight scatters 
a vast amount of imagination and romance. The engine was 
obviously in a bad way. There was a large escape of steam from 
the valves, and the engineers liad apparently cut several of her 
ribs out, and laid them along the track, and were now labouring 
to knock her shoulder-blade out of joint. The swearing at the 
same time was terrible, and I was glad to stride away from the 
natural beauties of the situation to my seat under the blinking 
owls, reflecting mainly on all the British army once did in 
Flanders. There is a peculiarity, by the way, in much of the 
swearing in this part of the world which one notes. The whole 
practice is everywhere abominable, but an emphatic oath under 
strong passion may command passing respect by its thunder, 
and, whether or not, immediately apologizes by the fact that it is 
not to be repeated ; whereas a long and never-ending drawl of 



150 MERIDIAX. [ch. xxii. 

profane interpolations, running not only into words Lnt syllables 
of words, as if the sacred name could not in sufficient contempt 
be cut into too many pieces, is more revolting than impressive, 
and as weak as it is utterly inexcusable. Fortunately, the great 
majority of those who are doomed to hear do not understand a 
word of it, and for my part I have been always glad to conclude 
that it is a form of jjaiois which the poor devils who utter it do 
not understand themselves. How our engine on this occasion 
got into working order I am unable to explain, but its exploits 
thus far have been singular. When once fairly in breath, it 
seemed to get on very well at a rate of five to seven miles an 
hour ; but at the stoppages, which were numerous, the process 
of re-inflation exceeded the due licence even of a Highland bag- 
pipe, and, besides the usual droning and snorting of that delicious 
instrument, consisted in a saltatory movement backward and 
forward, as if the train had to leap a series of five-bar gates one 
way and to releap them all over again the other, before getting 
under weigh at its normal and regulation trot. The Mobile 
and Ohio Railroad is just now choked with cotton bales ; the 
freight trains, one a day, are long and heavy, and the rolling 
stock inadequate to the occasion ; but at a time when the vital 
struggle of the Southern seaports is to hold a place against the 
great steam-power suction towards New York, it must surely be 
Avortli consideration whether a thorough renewal of their existing 
lines of inland traffic be not paramount even to new schemes. 
The IMemphis and Charleston, and the Mobile and Ohio, are 
equally splendid lines of communication. They are being crossed 
by other lines at various points to their detriment, but their 
original sweep and convenience of transit remain intact, and yet 
they are languishing and, to the stockholders, unproductive 
affairs. It is the part of Charleston and Mobile to consider and 
be wise. The great advance of the port of Savannah is largely 
to be ascri1)ed to the ability and vigour with which the old 
inland lines of Georgia have been conducted, and the judgment 
with which their connections have been extended far and wide 
into other States. 

Meridian is a lump of a town, sprawling over sandy mounds 
in a wide open bosom of the forest. The tufty foliage of the 
yellow pines, covering the ridges, forms the chief ornament of 
the place. But the town is growing up rapidly, and several large 
brick warehouses have been recently erected on lines intended 
to be developed one day into streets. A long row of stores ftices 
the railway, with ample space between for all manner of open-air 
business. JNIeridian is the terminus of the Alabama and Chat- 
tanooga Eailroad ; and the Mobile and Ohio and the Vicksburg 
and Montgomery lines also cross at this point. The construction 
of the Alabama and Chattanooga, which was pushed on from 



CH. xxii.] . STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. ITA 

Meridian under a superintendent, while ]\Ir. Stanton was busy 
urging forward the work from the other end, naturally brought a 
deal of labour, money, and traffic about the little town, and 
helped it over its early stages. The negro population is numerous, 
and much of the storekeeping business is conducted by sharp, 
active young men of Jewish aspect, who talk German-English, 
and make no secret of their little bill transactions on cotton 
liens at the rate of 40 per cent, per annum. These people are 
sent down by firms in New York and other large towns to sell 
goods at a profit of 100 to 200 per cent, to the more impoverished 
class of planters, and to advance money on cotton at the approach 
of the picking season at as much interest as they can extort. 
One firm in New York is said to make half a million of dollars 
in this lucrative business per annum, after giving, it may be sup- 
posed, a fair share of the spoils to the Hebrew agents, who live 
on the spot, and bear the heat and burden of the day. About 
100,000 bales of cotton are annually passed on from this point, 
where so many railways meet. The Alabama and Chattanooga, 
though not completed and opened to through traffic, is working 
as far into the Alabama interior as Eutaw, and passes at this 
end through Sumpter and Green counties, and other rich cotton 
districts of the Alabama " prairie " land. 

I went out several miles with the superintendent of the 
Alabama and Chattanooga Company here to see mineral traces 
supposed to be coal, and found them to be tliin chips of lignite 
exposed by a little superficial diaging across the bed of a rill 
trickling down a depression betwixt the deep pine-clad ravines 
which characterize this locality. Having fallen on the well- 
developed seams of coal and iron at the northern end of the 
Alabama and Chattanooga Eailroad, I have felt some curiosity 
in marking the characteristics of the country at its southern 
extremity ; but though this line passes direct through well- 
known mineral fields of Alabama over a large portion of its 
course, yet the aspect of the country down here in Mississippi 
differs entirely from the neighbourhood of Lookout Mountain, 
and the northern interior of the intervening State. The highest 
elevations are simply heaps of sand, clay, and drift. The ravines 
are of immense depth, and I have not been at the bottom of the 
lowest of them ; but, in the beds of the creeks we had to cross, 
no trace of rock was to be seen, and the lazy waters moved over 
the same sandy slime as was found on the tops of the highest 
mounds. As one nears the Gulf the rocky strata seem to lie 
deep out of sight ; and lignite and shaly deposits, while highly 
interesting in a scientific point of view, as showing in embryo 
how the great coal-beds were formed, do not promise much com- 
mercial result. In this same district copperas has been found, and 
was wrought to some extent for dyeing purposes during the war. 



152 MERIDIAN. [cii. xxii. 

One of the Meridian newspapers has announced that the 
Federal Government has sent detective officers into Mississippi 
to watch the proceedings of the " Ku-Klux-Klan," and en- 
deavour to bring some of its members to justice. A secret 
organization under tliis name spread with amazing rapidity over 
the South soon after tlie close of the war, and for some time, by 
moving in considerable bodies at night, in a peculiar costume, 
and executing a " wild justice," spread alarm botli among 
Federal soldiers and negroes. For a time the " Ku-Klux " 
enjoyed the respect, if not the confidence, of the "conquered 
population ; " but nearly all trace of this mysterious league has 
now happily disappeared from the country, or, where still extant 
in any form, its role has been taken up by mere marauders, 
betMdxt whom and the white people there is no manner of sym- 
pathy. One day lately three rough men sat round the stove of 
a lager-beer saloon in one of the towns of East Tennessee. By 
and by a man came in dressed in fine broadcloth, and with an 
air of great briskness about him. He was a member of the 
legal profession, and his talk with the three rough men, while 
most familiar and cordial, was all about the extent to which, in 
certain crises, he would serve a client. It appeared that the 
legal gentleman was prepared to be very loyal in getting off a 
thief, and his views of professional honour gave general satisfac- 
tion. " But what is the Ku-Klux-Klan ? " asked one of the trio. 
" The Ku-Klux," said the man of law, " are the three K's of 
Greece," from which profound explanation the inquirer did not 
seem to derive much edification, and he asked again, " What are 
they ? who are they ? " The lawyer, dropping his voice into a 
whisper, replied, " They are Confederate soldiers killed in the 
war who cannot rest in their graves ! " The secret society was, 
in point of fact, a kind of ghost of the Confederate armies. Its 
uniform, made of black calico, was called a " shroud." The stuff 
was sent round to private houses with a request that it should 
be made into a garment, and fair fingers sewed it up and had it 
ready for the secret messenger when he returned and gave his 
tap at the door. The women and young girls had faith in the 
honour of the " klan," and on its will and ability to protect them. 
The " Ku-Klux," when out on their missions, also wore a long 
tapering hat ; and a black veil over the face completed their dis- 
guise. The secret of the membership was kept with remarkable 
fidelity. In no instance, I believe, has a member of the " Ku- 
Klux" been successfully arraigned or punished, though their 
acts often flew in the face of the " reconstructed authorities," and 
were not in any sense legal. When they had a long ride at 
night, they made requisitions for horses at the farmhouses, and 
the horses \\'ere often su]iplied under a prevailing feeling of 
assurance that they would be returned on a night following 



cu. xxn.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 153 

without injury. If a company of Federal soldiers stationed in 
a small town vapoured as to what they would do with the " Ku- 
Klux," the men in shrouds paraded in the evening before the 
guard-house in numbers so overwhelming as at once reduced the 
little garrison to silence. The overt acts of the " Ku-Klux " con- 
sisted for the most part of the disarming of dangerous negroes, 
the infliction of " lynch-law " on notorious offenders, and, above 
all, in the creation of one feeling of terror as a counterpoise to 
another. The white people in the South at the close of the war 
were alarmed, not so much by the threatened confiscation of 
their property by the Federal Government, as by the smaller 
but more present dangers of life and property, virtue and honour, 
arising from the social anarchy around them. The negroes, after 
the Confederate surrender, were disorderly. Many of them 
would not settle down to labour on any terms, but roamed about 
with arms in their hands and hunger in their bellies ; and the 
governing power, with the usual blind determination of a victo- 
rious party, was thinking only all the while of every device of 
suffrage and reconstruction by which " the freedmen " might be 
strengthened, and made, under Northern dictation, the ruling 
power in the country. Agitators of the loosest fibre came down 
among the towns and plantations, and, organizing a Union 
league, held midnight meetings with the negroes in the woods, 
and went about uttering sentiments which, to say the least, in 
all the circumstances were anti-social and destructive. Crimes 
and outrages increased. The law, which must be always more or 
less weak in all thinly populated countries, was all but power- 
less ; and the new Governments in tiie South, supposing them 
to have been most willing, were certainly unable to repress dis- 
order, or to spread a general sense of security throughout the 
community. A real terror reigned for a time among the white 
people ; and in this situation the " Ku-Klux" started into being. 
It was one of those secret organizations which spring up in dis- 
ordered states of society, when the bonds of law and government 
are all but dissolved, and when no confidence is felt in the 
regular public administration of justice. But the power with 
which the " Ku-Klux " moved in many parts of the South, the 
knowledge it displayed of all that was going on, the fidelity with 
which its secret was kept, and the complacency with which it 
was regarded by the general commmiity, gave this mysterious 
body a prominence and importance seldom attained by such 
illegal and deplorable associations. Nearly every respectable 
man in the Southern States was not only disfranchised, but 
under fear of arrest or confiscation ; the old foundations of 
authority were utterly razed before any new ones had yet been 
laid, and in the dark and benighted interval the remains of the 
Confederate armies — swept, after a long and heroic day of fair 



154 ]}//■:/://) LIN. \v.n. xxii. 

Ii«;'lit, IVoin ilic licld- IIKUmI IkiIoi'c^, llic eyes of tlio po()])U> in thin 
vvinrd iuid iiii(liiiL!,lit. h1i;i|)(! of a " I\n-I\lu\-Kliui." Tlio ncj^rocs 
wvvo. "sciU'cd" by (lie ;i|i|iiii'iti()ii, iiiid iiiiiiiy of tlie " carpet- biijr" 
u_L»iljii()rs were run out of llie t'ouiihy. \Vitniiii_i>'s were {^iveii, 
visitaiioiis Mrre nindr. in force, ci'iiiiinals l;ikeii in J/tti/ratife 
(Ivlicto wvw. loru out of tlu! liands of the sherilf and shot or 
maimed, and more moderate ])unishinent.s were inllietiul whieli, 
whetlier deserved or not, eould oidy be considered outraj^'es. 
One reign of terror beyan to rise out of anoMier. lUit si'x years 
of peace have greatly changed ;dl Ihat stiitd of tilings. The, 
negroes are (piiet and ordcirly, and (■oin])aralively inchisti'ions ; 
and tlie white people, more sure of their ])osilion under the 
Federal laws of reconstruction, arc; begiiniing to resume their 
right of voting, and of controlling iJie administration of affairs 
through th(> ordinary legal cluuuuds. Scarcely a trace of the 
originiil "K\i-Klux" organization remains, or, if it still exists, it 
is yvvy seldom brought into action. With the exception of 
Ivobisou's county in North ('arolina., wIum'c the midnight raiders 
^iP^ jTrci known by name ami eharacttu" to be a mere band of rullians 
without any ]H)litical com])lexion, crimes and acts of violence 
in the South havi; this winter been few and far bet.ween — 
certainly not more numerous than in any very large northern 
or Muropcnm eity.^ In this State of Mississippi tliere has been 
ail ordinary crop of murders arising out of private (piarrels, 
aiul in one or two instances criniinals have been rescued out of 
the too feeble hands of the sherilf. lUit the only cases of outrage 
])assing under my observation, in which a trace of "Ku-Klux" 
origin is recogni/.able, are not more than two or three in number. 
Wlien crossing Williamson's Orcek,on my wayto Macon inUeorgia, 
the ])lace was under much excitement on account of a barbarous 
niuriler, or rather murdei's, ])(M'pet rated a few nights before. A 
band of men, said to be in " Ku-Klux " mask, came to the store 
of Allan Creich, a. grocer, M'hen the inmates were in bed, and, on 
being answ(>red by the shopman, said it was Crcich himself they 
wanted. Crcich at length came tlown, and was immediately 
seized, dragged some distance, despatched, and thrown into the 
creek, where his body was found. The assassins then proceeded 
to the house of Allan's brother, where they found only the man's 
wife and a. little boy or girl. The wife declared that her husband 
was not in the house, but refused to say where he was. The 
in(piisitors then interrogated the child, who was finally induced 
to tt'U them where the father was staying the day belbre. They 
found him in the house named, Avliere he had been drinking, and 
forthwith dealt with him as th(>y had dealt with his brother Allan. 

1 Siiioo Miia was written, very serious disturbances have occurred in a 
county of South (^imliiia, the excited political foeliug in which State, and its 
causes, 1 liavc indicated in i>aii.siiijf. 



vii. xxu.] S'TJT/': OF MISSISSIPIT. m.-J 

Siicli \v(;r<; tlif! uccf)tints ^iv(!ii c>f tin's fitrocious transaction. It 
apixniis that Allan had lon^ Ixjcn hlaincd Tor rosetlinif ^oods and 
produce stolon hy thu negroes, and had boon ol'toii warnod to 
do.si.st without avail. The stealings ol" the nogi-oos are a sultjoct 
oi" prevailing and almost wild cornj)laint in many ])arts of the 
South ; and soon af't(;r the M'ar some of the iiadical-Nogi'O Logis- 
lidjir(!S passed laws prohibiting the ]»iirchaso of produce by 
.stor(!mcn after diirk. TIk; Legislature of (Jerjrgi;i, luid, in its last 
session, repealed this enactment, believing ]»robably that tin; 
necessity ibr it had passed away. About the same p(;iiod a 
pjirty of men in masks came to a farmhouse twenty miles from 
(Jhattanooga, where a robust negro man li\'od, who was in the 
custom (jf going .'dxuit with a loaded gun, and saying he wonld 
shoot any white man who (|uari(!ll(;d with him. 'i'hey waked 
him u|) in his cabin, miide him d(;liver his gun, and broke; it into 
pieces, but departed without doing him any bodily harm. Some, 
nights afterwards a more numoi'ous body came to the same farm- 
house and demandcsd horses. The farmer, a Pennsylvania irian, 
was not at home; his wife refused in his absence to comply with 
llie order; and through tluj intcjrvention of a guest in the house, 
the tall-hatted m(;n in shrouds wcii'o in(biced to go away, some- 
what dissatis(i(!d and undecided. These are the only " Ku-Kliix " 
traces 1 have found. The institution is dying fast, if not alieady 
dead ; but it is the deep vice of all suc?i secret leagues to sui-vive, 
in a more degenerate i'orm, the circumstances which could give 
even a colourabh; justification to their exist(;nce, and to ]jass 
fiuidly into the hands of utter scoundnils, with no good motive^ 
find with foul passions of reveng(!, or plundei', or lust of dread 
and myst(;rious power alone in their hearts. There is a tendency 
in the Noiihern press to make too much of "Southern crimes 
and outrages," and by exaggeration and peiversion to keep alive 
the very disloyalty they denounce. It would be matter of deep 
r(!gret were the I'ederal Govemment, by any new schemes of 
repression or reconstruction, to rekindle distrusts and animosities 
which are rapidly dying out. "J'lie great object is to secure a 
more efficient administration of justice;, without resjjoct to jjarty 
or colour. The popular and partisan (;lecticjn of Judges, more 
especially in the present state of Election Law in the South, is 
a gross abuse, and tc;nds more than anything else to countenance 
and support every form f)f taking the law into th(;ir own hands, 
muf;h too prevalent among the peoph; in most pints of the 
United States. 

A Doctor — whether of laws, medicine, or divinity, I have not 
learned — has made himself famous in the columns of the 
li'<!publican organ here by agreeing to bc^come the teacher of one 
of the negro schools. It may be inferred from the extravagance 
of the piai.se bestowed on the iJoctor, that the social jjosition of 



156 MERIDIAN. [cii. xxir. 

a fe'clioolniastcv of the Macks is not higli. It may be necessary, 
indeetl, to train negro teachers, of whom there are yet only a 
very few — all the aspiring coloured men having become Senators 
and Ilepresentatives — ere the education of the masses of negro 
children can be overtaken. This is one of tlic many dilliculties 
of the school (question in this country. There is a greater 
demand for teachers of white schools than can be supplied, and 
the oilice of public schoolmaster has sometimes to be filled by 
any one who oilers. Yet fairly liberal salaries are given. 



CIIArXER XXIII. 

From Meridian to Eutaw. — Mr. Btanton's failure to pay the Interest due 
on the A. and (J. Bonds. — The Ahibania "Prairie" Land. -Bridge over 
the Tonibi<4])ce.-- Tuscaloosa. — Decline of L('arnin(( in the University. - 
River System of Alabama.-- The Warrior and Cahawba Coal and Iron 
Fields. — The Chinese on the Railway Works. 

[Eutaw, Ala. — Jan. 14 — 15.] 

EuTAW is a con.si(lera})lG way into the interior of AlaT)ama, ap- 
proaching^, as I liave done, from the south-west border at Meridian, 
on tlie line of what is calhjd the " Alabama and Chattixnooga," 
or Nortii-East and Soutli-West Alabama llailroad. It is some 
thiity miles or more from Tuscaloosa, the former capital of the 
State, where the mineral and agricultural resources of Alabama 
have a common point of meeting, and where " laws and learning," 
following " wealth and commerce," at one time had their seat. 
The earthwork of the road has been completed fifteen or eighteen 
miles beyond this j)oiiit towards Tuscaloosa; but the trains woi'k 
only to Eutaw iVom the south-west end of the line, and to Elyton 
from Chattanooga in the north-east. This well-designed line is 
thus, at present date, an unfinished road. But Ijy cars which push 
ahead from Elyton on one side and Eutaw on the other with 
railway material, and stages to Tuscaloosa that run twice or 
thrice a week, one can attain some knowledge of the deeply in- 
teresting country betwixt these points. There was much talk 
along the line as I passed as to the consequences of the failure 
of Mr. Stanton, the maker of the road, to pay the -lanuary 
interest due on his State-endorsed bonds, and what the new 
Governor and Legislature of the State would do in a matter 
which for the first time threatened to tarnish the spotless credit 
of Alabama.^ 

' The Legislature held an adjourned session at Montgomery in the end of 
January, and instituted a full incfiiiry into the Alabama and Chattanooga Jiail- 
way bonds, the result of which was that there had been an over- issue of 
bonds to Htanton and (Jompany, and that, in particular, the previ(jus 
Governor and Legislature, when State endorsatiou had already exhausted or 
surpassed its legal limits, had issued two millions of direct State l)onds to the 
company to enable them to complete ihc undertaking. These disclosures 



158 EUTAW. [cu. xxin. 

The day is warm, almost hot towards noon, and the motion of 
the train from INIeridian is an agreeable fan as it passes through 
a good agricultural country of mounds and hollows and natural 
drainage, where, along the watercourses, the Alabama canebrake, 
famed in negro song, springs in some luxuriance, and is crunched 
at all seasons of the year M'ith greedy zest by mules and other 
" bestial " of the farms. The railway passengers are not numerous, 
and some have to pay five or six dollars for stage conveyance 
from Eutaw to Tuscaloosa. At Livingston, a considerable town 
half-way between Meridian and Eutaw, we get on the edge of 
the Alabama " prairie " land ; and at Eutaw — a respectable little 
place, spreading over a rising ground nicely embowered under 
rows of trees, giving shade to many private residences and streets 
of stores, and what seem hotels or boarding-houses, where outside 
not a few blood horses are " hitched up " — the " prairie " land is 
all around. The Alabama prairies extend across nearly the whole 
breadth of the State from east to west, and are of varying widths 
north and south of (30 to 100 miles, forming, with the bottoms 
along the rivers, the richest agricultural region of Alabama. 
They are of the same character and structure as the prairie-land 
of Mississippi, of which they seem a lateral extension, but 
spread out in much larger compass. The soil is deep and fertile, 
and rests on beds of rotten limestone, which afford it elements 
of perpetual renewal. The railway cuttings reveal the limestone, 
white as chalk, up to near the surface. The rock throws off a white 
powder under the slightest pressure of one's finger. The Tombigbee, 
one of the many navigable rivers of Alabama, is here crossed by 
a high wooden triangle bridge, and, as the train suddenly sweeps 
alonrf it, the scene draws forth exclamations in which delight is 
mingled with surprise. The limestone cliffs on one bank rise 60 to 

excited a great deal of public indignation, and for a few days the financial 
integrity of Alabama seemed to be passing through a severe ordeal. The 
resolution come to by the House of Representatives, after various anhnated 
debates, was that the Governor be authorized to make provision, either by 
temporary loan or unappropriated money in the treasury, for the payment of 
the interest due on all bonds loaned or endorsed to the A. and C. Railroad 
Company, jjroved to be in the hands of bona fide purchasers on the 1st of 
January last, and to proceed to recover in form of law from the defaulting 
company ; and the interest accordingly, by arrangement of the Governor, was 
paid in New York during the first week in April. Mr. Stanton has since 
been completing the road. The abuse of State credit, and the imposition on 
the financial world practised in this instance — an abuse and imposition 
rendered all the more flagrant by a letter that has appeared from the pen of 
ex-Govenior Smith, arguing strongly that the bonds signed and sealed by 
himself are illegal, and blaming the Legislature and the Governor for paying 
the interest on them — have received an etlectual check, and the railway 
liabilities of Alabama will be kept in future to the limit strictly prescribed to 
them by law. The total obligation of the State, when the various railway 
projects to which State endorsation is pledged are completed, will amomit, 
I believe, toabout 20,000,000 dollars. 



CH. xxiii.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 159 

80 feet above tlie bed of the river, and are carved by the action of 
the waters with almost sculptural art. Columns resting on chiselled 
pedestals, with ornamental capitals, and long lines of moulded 
cornici)ig over massive walls planed and coursed into regular 
blocks, are seen along the cliffy bank, as if fairy hands had, with 
Avondrous cunning, erected temples of whitest marble in honour 
of all the goddesses of the river. The railway, after crossing the 
bridge, passes, on the other and lower bank, along a trestle 
3,800 feet in length, and gets down again among the farms and 
plantations. Bales of cotton are lying on the bluff along the 
river-side, waiting for the steamboats ; but the river, after the 
long dry fall, and a winter in which there has been a spell of 
frost, but hitherto little rain, is unusually low. The surface of 
the deep soil is not a dead level, but slightly swelling, and is 
free of swamp or other obstruction to uniform cultivation. Yet 
the watercourses are sluggish ditches, and at the farmhouses 
there are large bucket wells, dug down a great depth through 
the soft limestone to the springs. Slavery was dense in this 
prairie region in the time before the war, and now there is a 
great scarcity of free negro labour. A spirit of roving, and the 
demand for labour on the railways, have carried away the blacks 
in thousands. The planters have been able to grow but small 
patches of corn and cotton on their teeming lands. Hundreds 
of acres on every plantation of rich arable soil are lying idle, 
and enjoying a long fallow, which will probably make them 
richer and fatter still, against the time when they may again be 
In'ought into use. Yet this prairie land cannot rest, but must 
always be doing something. When the Hand of man ceases to 
till and dress it, the strong and untamed soil begins to work 
and wanton in its own way, and is now sending up over large 
tracts a wild herbage, and, Avhere ditches and watercourses have 
not been kept clear as formerly, displays a tendency to develop 
little germs of swamp. So that over wide areas of open land, 
which one can readily picture a garden full of wealth and peoj^le, 
an a,spect of wildness and solitariness reigns. 

Tuscaloosa, with its pretty Indian name, so much finer and 
sweeter than the " Jonesboro's " and " Smith villes " of a more 
prosaic race, is as beautiful and spirited a country-town as one 
could hope to see anywhere. There is a style about it that is 
marvellous, when one considers how long it has been not only 
decapitalized, but shut out from railway communication, another 
word for " the world." Tuscaloosa is the seat of the University 
of Alabama, where upwards of a hundred students, the flower of 
the State, were wont to spend or misspend, as the case might be, 
their golden hours. But the professors, at the close of the war, 
were put under the ban of political proscription like all other 
liighnesses in the South, and new men of inferior attainments 



IfiO liUTAW. [CH. XXIII. 

were set down in tlieir chairs. The consequence is that Alabama 
has still a University, with buildings and libraries, and professors, 
and expenditure, but no students ; and one wanders about this 
beautiful arboury, asking, " Where is the fruit ? " The wise men 
of the North and East attribute this lack of fruit to the deep 
and inveterate disloyalty of the South, forgetting that while 
" one man may lead a horse to Avater a hundred cannot compel 
him to drink," and that three-fourths of the disloyalty in the 
South is the result of a too prolonged course of political injustice. 
This is a well-worn truism of the Old World, which the American 
people will probably find out much sooner than it was found out 
elsewhere. At Tuscaloosa, the Black Warrior Eiver passes from 
a fall, over its long upper course, of five feet in the mile, to a 
descent of five inches in the mile through prairie land, and into 
confluence with other great rivers which search out an ever- 
deepening and concentrated course towards the Gulf. The river 
system of Alabama forms a subject of study and interest in 
itself. The Tennessee, diverted at Gunter's Landing, in the north- 
east of the State, from its southward course by the " millstone 
grit " and carboniferous strata which the force of the subsiding 
waters would appear to have been unable to scoop out as at 
Chattanooga and down the great valley betwixt the Lookout and 
the Eaccoon range of hills, flows westward over the softer sand- 
stone and cretaceous rocks along the northern border of the State, 
till it pours its great volume of waters with the Ohio into the 
Mississippi. The low range of hills skirting on the south this 
westward valley of the Tennessee forms a new watershed, from 
which all the rivers of Alabama flow southward to the Gulf of 
Mexico, and converge till they find a common outlet into that 
Mediterranean of the New World. Within a few miles of the 
Tennessee the Warrior begins to gather from numerous forks its 
portly stream, till at Tuscaloosa, hundreds of miles from the 
Gulf, it becomes a deep and navigable river. Farther west along 
the Mississippi line the Tombigbee emerges into importance, and 
is navigable by heavy-laden river-boats a long way above the 
railway bridge betwixt Livingston and Eutaw. On the north- 
eastern border of the State the Coosa comes down from its head- 
waters in the hills of Upper Georgia, and is freely navigable from 
Eome in the latter State to Greenport, fifty miles south from the 
Tennessee at Gunter's Landing, where, amidst the hard material 
of the mineral region of Alabama, that turned the greater river 
westward, it takes a southward course over 150 miles of rapids 
and other forms of navigable obstruction to its confluence with 
the Tallapoosa, near Wetumpka, a town some twenty miles or 
more above Montgomery, the Alabama capital, where it becomes 
freely navigable again, flowing through rich agricultural lands 
amidst deep banks of shandy clay, which, in its winding course. 



en. xxin.] STATE OF ALABAMA. H51 

it has moulded at various levels into Hues of almost architec- 
tural exactness. The Cahawba Eiver, in the middle territory 
betwixt the Warrior and the Coosa, drains a distinct mineral 
basin of its own. But all these rivers flow, south-eastward 
on the one hand and south-westward on the other, through 
mineral lands, prairie lands, and alluvial bottoms, to form what 
is called x)ar excellence the Alabama River, a great navigable 
channel passing through the southern division of the State, 
and with new tributaries swelling successively into Mobile Eiver 
and Mobile Bay, till they become one with the Gulf itself, 
sweeping round the Mexican and Texan shore and the Western 
Indies, and so mingling 

" With a' the pride that loads the tide, 
And crosses o'er the sultry line." 

The river system of Alabama is thus singularly connected 
and harmonized in all its wide- spread parts ; and, with the ex- 
ception of the' thirty miles betwixt the Tennessee at Gunter's 
Landing and the Coosa at Gadsden, forms in reality a complete 
inland water communication extending far beyond the territory 
of Alabama, and converging over vast regions towards a common 
oceanic outlet. Two-thirds of the State of Alabama are traversed 
by navigable rivers, that are not only parts of a whole within the 
State itself, but by natural and easily opened coimections might 
be made to extend their power of transport far northward east and 
west. A small fraction of the money spent to good effect for navi- 
gation purposes alone on twenty miles of the Clyde in Scotland, 
and a still smaller fraction of the efforts in Pennsylvania to 
bring coal and iron together, would have sufficed to open up all 
the copious resources, mineral and agricultural, of this richly 
endowed State, without the modern invention of railroads. But 
the railway age is now upon the world here as elsewhere, and 
great lines, two or three hundred miles in length, are being made 
through the basins of the Coosa, the Cahawba, and the Warrior, 
with supreme contempt of water communication ; so that any 
one may place himself in the cars at Euston Square in London, 
and be duly delivered, if he has nothing else to do by the way, 
at the foot of any of the numerous coal and iron mountains of 
Alabama in three weeks, a few hours less or more. Tuscaloosa is 
in the Warrior coal-field, and has been mining coal in its own 
fashion for half a century. The railway is now coming to it, not 
under the most auspicious financial circumstances, but it is there 
within a few miles, and will probably modify in a few years, as 
in other sections of the mineral region of Alabama where the 
iron horse is pacing, the whole aspect of aiiairs. The Warrior 
coal-field, extending from this neighbourhood to the north- 
eastern corner of Alabama, between Lookout Mountain and the 

M 



162 EUTAW. [cH. XXIII. 

Tennessee Ptiver, covers an area of 3,000 square miles. Over this 
wide district coal seams one to tliree feet thick abound. There 
are twenty-five localities in the basin of the Warrior where the 
coal crops out, aiid has been more or less imperfectly mined and 
made merchantable. They are scooping it out from the hill-sides, 
whore it is deposited in horizontal beds of unknown breadth, 
gathering it on the edges of the roads, and diving for it, by a 
curious process, in the beds of the Warrior and its forks ; and 
the accumulating material brought into Tuscaloosa in waggons is 
put on barges and tloated down the river, and sold in Demopolis, 
Selma, Montgomery, and even as far as Mobile, at a price which 
puts the Pittsburg black diamond out of joint. It is for the 
most part a soft bituminous coal, but burns brightly, and can 
hardly be excelled for the generation of heat and steam. The 
production of coal in Alabama, by the primitive processes pur- 
sued without either skill or capital, amounts to about 30,000 
tons per annum. The (Jahawba coal-field, a little farther south, 
and in the centre of the State, is still richer in mineral deposits 
than the Warrior, though of nuich smaller compass, having an 
area only of 700 square miles. Seams of coal have been found 
there in five or six localities three to eight feet thick, and there 
also beds of red haematite iron ore have been disclosed in sur- 
yjrising richness. From Pibb county, a few miles south from 
Tuscaloosa, to Will's Valley in De Kalb county in the north-east 
corner of the State, the red fossiliferous iron is found deposited 
in nodules in the valleys, and seams of haimatite look out from 
the sides, and appear to permeate the interior area, of the hilly 
ranges. The seams of hannatite are at some points seven to 
fifteen feet in thickness. Over at Elyton, beyond the present gap 
in the railway, the lied Mountain, a long range of hill rising 
betwixt the basins of the Warrior and the Cahawba, and ex- 
tending north-eastward till it seems to pass into parallel line 
with the Lookout range culminating in the great peak at Chatta- 
nooga, is charged with thick beds of coal and iron, and has long 
at 'racted eager attention as the backbone, so to speak, of the 
mineral wealth of Alabama, loosely scattered over 4,000 square 
miles of territory. Many furnaces had been erected along this 
coal and iron district before the war, and various ironworks, 
such as the Briardale and the Shelby, had attained considerable 
eminence when the great armed struggle broke out and threw 
every work of industry and useful enterprise into difficulty and 
confusion. Two or three new companies, with capitals of a 
million dollars each, had just been formed, had bought up 
mineral lands, and commenced operations, when the war came 
and reduced them to a state of collapse. The Confederate 
Government stepped forward, and in some cases, where there 
were working powers and appliances, bought up the property, 



en. XXIII.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 163 

or gave financial assistance. The ore at Briarfield, in Bibb 
county, was converted by a liot-blast furnace into pig, trans- 
ported to Selma, and there cast into heavy rifled guns. But 
when the war languished on the Southern side, raiding wings 
of the Federal host forced their way even liere into the mineral 
heart of Alabama, where, though slave labour had never 
penetrated, free white labour was beginning to raise its head, 
and blew up the iron furnaces and devastated the ironworks. 
Northern capitalists have since the war been attempting to 
repair this ruin with varying success and failure, but the fur- 
naces for the most part remain extinguished, and ruin still 
spreads its sable wing over great and promising works, the 
resumption of which, with tlie railway facilities now extended 
to them, can only be a question of time. 

Who should be here even now, in untrodden valleys where 
the negro has scarce shown his face, and where the white man, 
conscious all the while of the riches within easy grasp, trembles 
in his gait, and the steam-engine seems in fiery fury to have 
rushed ahead of all other elements of civilization, but our old 
and classic " citizens of the world," the Chinese. A band of 
Chinese labourers, 600 to 700 strong, drawn from Cali- 
fornia and the Pacific Eailway, have been employed on this 
Alabama and Chattanooga road from an early period of its 
construction. They are lodged in tents at present over on the 
Elyton side, and are doing the earthwork ^?rtri passu with the 
negro, who is not so particular in the matter of tents, and is 
much more easily moved from one site to another. Anything in 
the shape of a sleeping-place satisfies the negro, and, if put to it, 
he will take the shadow of a bush or tree for a few niglits, and \ 
build up his square box of frames without windows by degrees. 
The Cliinee, wlio struts even here with a celestial sort of air, 
must have his tent all nicely fixed up and provided for liim. 
The Chinese navvies are paid 15 dollars gold a month with 
rations, and the negroes 1*75 dollars a day without rations. The 
terms, as thus arranged, are considered jjretty equal ; but arthe i 
rations of the Chinaman are not extremely expensive, save in ' 
the article of tea Ijurdened with duty, the equality of Chinese 
and Negro wages can only be accounted for l)y the practical 
superiority of Negro to Chinese labour. The Chinese came in on 
this line of railway at Meridian, the southern end, and did not 
comport themselves to the approval of the superintendent. Their 
rations were in money-cost 75 cents a day. Their work done in 
"grading," or earthwork, cost the conq)any 97 cents a yard, when 
the same labour could have been contracted for at 35 cents a 
yard. The superintendent at Meridian would not bear it, and 
the whole band of Chinese were transferred to the Chattanooga 
end of the works. The testimony borne there by the chief 

M 2 



164 EUTAW. [CH. XXIII. 

authorities was that the Chinese had not done so well as was 
expected, that they were not so capable of la))our as the Negro, 
hut that their hands were hardening, and they were now on 
the whole giving satisfaction. As regards the alleged saving 
and economical habits of the Chinese, it seems certain that on 
monthly pay-days at Meridian they spent their fifteen dollars in 
whisky, chickens, and whatever they could buy in the stores, as 
freely as any other s])endthrifts. The Chinese are inveterate 
gamblers, and Sundays are spent about the railway cuttings in 
elaborate elForts of the Celestials to overreach the Infernals at 
cards or dominoes ; but the Negro, also an adept in play, is not 
supposed to lose much in these encounters. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Vicksburg and Montgomery Railway. — Demopolis. — Despair of the 
Planters for Labour. — Negro Women. — Selma — its Cotton Mart. — 
Reform of the Municipality. — Claims of the Town to be a Railway Centre. 
— Free School System in Alabama. The Negroes and the School or Poll 
Tax. — Distribution of the School Money. — National Banking. — Patent 
" Cotton Transplanter." 

[Selma, Ala.— Jon.. 15-16.] 

Returning down the Alabama and Chattanooga road from 
Eutaw to the little station called York, one gets upon the railway 
from Vicksburg via ]\Ieridian to Montgomery, part of a great line 
to be carried to Brunswick in Georgia, the Atlantic seaport 
nearest tlie Mississippi. Every strategic point in railway com- 
munication is searched out in all this Southern country with a 
keenness seldom equalled. The old lines may be tolerably 
serviceable, and may not have traffic more than to make them 
moderately prosperous ; but these considerations do not damp 
the ardour with which new lines are devised, if two or three 
hundred miles of distance are to be saved to t!ie Atlantic sea- 
board, and new and fertile tracts to be opened up by the way. 
The point of departure may be Vicksburg, a small place rising 
into commercial importance on the Mississippi, and the point of 
arrival Brunswick, trying to become a seaport, one hundred and 
thirty miles south of iSavannah, because it has three feet or four feet 
deeper water than any port, save perhaps Norfolk, on the Atlantic 
coast ; but all this poverty of present resource is scarcely deemed 
a rational impediment, and though the difficulty of raising the 
necessary loans is great, and the difficulty of obtaining a respect- 
able subscription of capital is greater, yet the idea of an " air- 
line " as direct as birds can fly seizes on the general mind, and, 
gathering up all the interests at either end, and piecing itself on 
to existing roads with the rarest ingenuity, gets itself lobby- 
rolled through the Legislature into a legal shape, and forthwith 
becomes more or less an accomplished fact. In a few years 
hence every salient point on the Mississippi will be connected 
by direct " air-lines" with the Atlantic seaboard, and the great 
draught by steam and capital to New York of late years, wliich 



166 SELMA. [cH. xxiv. 

would speedily become suffocating to the American continent, 
■will be gradually modified and counteracted by railway enter- 
prise, and by the desire of British and Continental manufacturers, 
in the natural course of commerce, to get into the most immediate 
relation with the producers of their raw material. On any 
narrower hypothesis the present railway making in the South 
would seem quite unjustifiable. But the interior and local 
interest of the new railway projects at the same time is very 
manifest. The great difficulty of the United States is country 
roads, and the want of stone and rock. The constant tendency 
to drop into ruts and puddles botli wide and deep wherever 
wheeled vehicles can pretend to go, is observable from the 
suburbs of Philadelphia to this point. It is only by the iron 
track, liberally distributed, that the produce of the Southern States 
can hope to get to market ; and over-numerous as the great lines 
of communication, made and projected, seem to be, they all 
pass through wide interior regions of country, thinly peopled 
indeed, but settled and in working order, and capable of much 
development. 

The railroad from York to Selma passes through Sumpter, 
Marengo, Perry, and Dallas counties, fertile tracts, yielding 
heavy crops of cotton on a soil that is inexhaustible. At De- 
mopolis, a pretty town founded by French refugees, and where 
the railway again crosses the Tombigbee after its confluence with 
the Warrior, the steep limestone cliffs seem even whiter and finer 
tlian near Eutaw. The chalky substance when touched whitens 
one's fingers, and a penknife cuts it as easily as if it were a piece 
of cheese. This natural "fertilizer" underlies the whole middle 
or "prairie" territory of Alabama from east to west, and enriches, 
mellows, and invigorates the deep upper soil of its own accord. 
But a great desolation has passed over much of these lands, 
which the vitality of free labour can but slowly efface ; and 
external marks of wealth, and even comfort, have in many places 
for the pi-esent all but disappeared. Many of the planters have 
deserted farming in despair, and taken up their abode in the 
small towns, where they live on the profits of some house 
property, or of some chopping business of insurance or mer- 
chandise. Tough and weather-worn men, who adhere to their 
posts in the field, come riding through the depots inquiring 
eagerly for hands to come and pick their stands of cotton, or 
drive their teams with the bales already made. A crowd of 
negroes — mostly girls and young women, not unconscious of 
certain charms, set off with various brass ornaments and glass 
beads — are always seen about the railway stations, looking up 
and down, wondering, and toying out their long holiday. Other 
negro women, modestly and tidily dressed, come in with little 
baskets of eggs, and chaffer greedily for the 30 cents per dozen. 



CH. XXIV.] STATE OF ALABAMA 167 

The remark is often heard, that the old negroes, who retain some 
of the industrial discipline and habit of slavery times, are the 
only remaining life of the cotton-fields, and that when tliey are 
gone the rising generation will not be worth a cent for any useful 
purpose of labour. 

Selraa is a town of six to seven thousand inhabitants, and 
looks as large as if it had as many more. It is an extensive 
cotton mart. Upwards of 50,000 bales have already been 
received this season, and the merchants and brokers expect to 
draw 25,000 more — being within 15,000 bales of the highest 
receipts before the war. The railway must be helping Selma, for 
the neighbouring plantations have not recovered in this propor- 
tion. There are many fine buildings, several large yards for 
storing cotton, and two or three broad streets of shops and ware- 
rooms where most necessaries and many articles of luxury may 
be purchased. Two-thirds of tiie men of business are Germans, 
many of them of Hebrew extraction. The Jews have settled 
largely in Southern Alabama, and what with negroes and 
coloured people, and German and Jewish names, there is a 
foreign air about Selma. The weather is also, even at this period 
of the year, sometimes hot and sultry, as if one were approaching 
sources of perennial fire, which even torrents of rain neither 
quench nor cool. There is neither hill nor sea near the town, but 
the Alabama River winds past it in rather beautiful curves under 
deep banks of reddish sand, and steamboats call twice or thrice a 
week and carry down considerable cargoes of cotton to Mobile. 
The town has slipped for conmiercial purposes over the edge of 
the "prairie" and its underlying beds of chalk, on to the expanse 
of clayey sand, that billows over the southern sectif»n of the 
State ; and it suffers some inconveniences in consequence. The 
negroes in Selma outnumber the whites ; but though every man, 
however black or white, who loafs about the town for three or 
four months, has a vote, the Democrats, who are here the white 
and conservative portion of the population, gained by the recent 
elections the upper hand in the municipality, showing that the 
negro vote need not always be on one side. The new party in 
power have re-organized the police force, which consists of fifteen 
men, four of whom are retained negroes, because they are deemed 
efficient constables worthy of place and trust. Tlie pretension 
of the Republicans and Radicals that the negroes can only be 
safe under their supremacy is gradually crumbling down in the 
South. There is much congratulation among the business people 
in Selma on the change of administration. The thieves and 
burglars are believed to have run away from the town when the 
Democrats obtained the direction of affairs, and the streets have 
not seemed so clean for a long time as since the new broom has 
begun to sweep. 



168 SELMA. [cH. xxiv. 

Selma is struggling hard to become, and has become to some 
extent, an important inland railway centre. One does not readily 
see how, within so short a distance of the capital of the State, a 
prominent position of this kind can be attained ; for, being on the 
same line east and west as Montgomery, the town is simply 
asserting an advantage which Montgomery possesses equally, 
and the facilities of any new project it may devise Montgomery 
may more or less equally share. But Selraa is farther to the 
west than Montgomery, and the diagonal lines from north-east 
to south-west, and south-east to north-west, strike Selma as a 
point of vantage. Thus a railroad already in operation — " the 
Alabama and Tennessee " of the maps — passes iirom Selma 
through a large space of the mineral land of Alabama to Rome 
and Dalton in Upper Georgia, and thence goes into connection 
with the " Virginia and Tennessee," or Lynchburg and Wash- 
ington route north. This completed scheme, of course, involves 
a direct extension from Selma to New Orleans, the greatest of all 
the Southern seaports, and the only worthy rival in the south- 
west of New York in the north-east. Selma, by another line of 
road, is being connected via Marion and Okolona with Memphis, 
in order that Memphis, with its great present and future power of 
cotton seeking the directest route to the manufacturer, may get 
direct on the road eastward to Brunswick in Georgia, the nearest 
" air-line " Atlantic seaport. This road is promoted with much 
energy under the presidentship of General Forrest, and great 
efforts are being made to obtain liberal subscriptions in the 
various counties through which it passes. The " Selma and 
Gulf" road, another project, is designed to connect Selma direct 
with Pensacola, the chief timber harbour of Florida. These 
Avorks are giving Selma an independent place in the railway 
system, and, having a large and rich country of its own, it will 
probably become a considerable seat of trade and population in 
the new era of prosperity calculated upon in Alabama. If the 
most ample means of communication can do anything to develop 
great natural riches, there should be a brighter future for this 
State than probably any other in the Union. The railways 
made and being made in Alabama open up and intersect the 
country in every direction. The Memphis and Charleston 
road sweeps the whole valley of the Tennessee along the 
northern frontier of the State. The Alabama and Chattanooga 
passes right across the interior, in the slanting line of the mineral 
valleys, from the north-east corner to about the middle of the 
western border line. The South and North goes up from Mont- 
gomery, through the same mineral districts as the Alabama and 
Chattanooga, which it crosses near Elyton, in the Red Mountain 
country, to Decatur on the Memphis and Charleston, and the 
Nashville and Tennessee lines. From Montgomery the same 



CH. XXIV.] STATE OF ALABAAIJ. 169 

South and North route is prolonged by the old line from the 
capital to Mobile, and by a new road recently opened for traffic 
is carried onward from Mobile to New Orleans. The Mont- 
gomery and Eufala, the Montgomery and West Point, the fSelma 
and Dalton, spread out from the interior eastward to distant 
points along the frontier of Georgia, and form connection with 
all the Georgian railways ; while westward, the Montgomery, 
Meridian, and Vicksburg, the Mobile and Ohio, the Selma, 
Marion, and Memphis, penetrate by diverse routes the Missis- 
sippi border, and carry the means of communication to the levees 
of the great river, and to the northern and north-western roads 
through Kentucky and Ohio. A scheme, projected some years 
ago, to extend the New Orleans and Jackson Railroad to De- 
catur, in North Alabama, would traverse the only part of the 
State still shut out from the iron network ; and in the north- 
eastern counties, more especially Sanford and Marion, would 
traverse mineral districts where the abundance of iron ore is 
probably as marked as in any other part of Alabama. This 
State is thus in rapid progress of being thoroughly opened up in 
all parts, and as amply provided, when not only its railways but 
its almost unique river system are taken into account, with the 
means of transit as any country could hope to be, or as any 
country in the world probably is. It is surprising to see so 
many great public works pushed forward simultaneously where 
so comparatively little industry and commerce have yet been 
developed to support them, and their operation may be attended 
with some financial trouble ; but they are too far advanced to be 
arrested by timid considerations now, and when completed and 
opened to traffic they will afford an opportunity of drawing forth 
the mineral treasures of Alabama which have long been sought 
in vain. 

The administration of the free school system is the subject of 
loud exclamations in Selma, as in many other parts of Alabama. 
At the close of the present fiscal year the finances of the town 
will show a deficit of 40,000 dollars, and the school expenditure 
gets the blame of most of it. There was a common school 
system, free to all white children in the South before the war, 
but the addition of the negro children has necessarily demanded 
more school buildings, more teachers, larger staffs of adminis- 
trators, and a much larger expenditure of every kind. The 
difficulty of finding qualified teachers, more especially for negro 
schools, the doubt whether any good is being done commensurate 
with the expenditure of money, and the lingering unbelief of 
slavery times as to the capacity of the negro for literary instruc- 
tion, combine with the impatience of taxation to reader the free 
school system less popular than one would desire to find it. 
The system of administration seems also very faulty, if not 



1,70 SELMA. [cm. xxiv. 

corrupt. The late State Superintendent of Education embezzled 
or nus;appro]irlato(l the funds ; and a county superintendent in 
North Alabama, tollowinii; so good an example, ran away with 
several thousand dollars entrusted to him for the payment of tlic 
teachers. The schools in tliat county are being carried on in the 
interim on fees prepaid by the parents, but nuuiy of the children 
have left oti' attendance. The school assessment is also partially 
levied as well as singularly distributed. A poll-tax payable by 
every male inhabitant over twenty-one and under forty-five years 
of age, together with some small duties on insurance premiums, 
have been set apart for the support of the free schools as a 
supplement to old school funds and trust endowments which 
appear to have been misnuiiuiged, but for the annual interest of 
which the State continues religiously to charge itself. The poll- 
tax, as assessed on the various counties, amounted for the past 
year to 102,819 dollars, the duties on insurance premiums to 
lo,o27 dollars— in all, 170. UO dollars. But the total e(Ulection 
of this special assessment for schools is not expected to be more 
than, if as much as, 100,000 dollars. Nearly half the poll-tax is 
luicollected. The money thus levied in the counties is sent into 
the iState Treasury, and thence remitted to all the counties in 
sums proportioned to the number of children of school age in 
each ; so that defaidting counties, and counties that have many 
children of school age but do not teach them, get largely of 
funds which they do not contribute, and very probably abuse 
and squander ; while counties that most lionour the tax- 
collector get greatly less than they pay, and than they need and 
wish to apply to school purposes. The new Government of 
Alabama will doubtless proceed without delay to correct abuses 
and anomalies which are subjecting the cause of education to an 
unnecessary strain of public dissatisfaction. One of the most 
obvious means of alleviating the financial ditficulty of providing 
at once for the education of all the negro children was to exact 
rigorous payment of the school tax from able-bodied negro men^ 
whose labour is in urgent demand at high wages. The slave- 
holders paid taxes to the State for them as slaves, and when this 
fiscal resource was cut away by emancipation, it became on 
general grounds of tinance all the more necessary that they 
should pay for themselves as free labourers. But when the poll- 
tax — the only tax to which the negro labourer is liable — was 
wholly devoted to the education of his own children, the obliga- 
tion upon him to pay became sacred. Yet, in point of fact, the 
negroes cannot be got to pay this poll-tax for schools, or the 
collectors hitherto employed are unwilling to exact it from them. 
In one instance where a planter, when paying his own taxes, 
offered to pay the State dues of the negroes in his employment, 
the money was refused, because payment by substitute was a 



CH. xxiv.J STATE OF ALABAMA. 171 

relic of the slave .system, or on some cfjually frivolous j^round, 
and payment lias never since been asked of the coloured people 
in question in any more direct form. When qualified teachers, 
who are scarce, have to pass a board of examiners, composed 
wholly or in part of negroes who may not know the alphaljet 
themselves, the education question here, with all its solemn 
sanctions and ennohling associations, seems to receive the last 
touch of ridicule, and common sense itself is struck completely 
dumb. 

The National Banks authorized by Federal law, and enjoying 
the privilege of drawing the interest on their capital in Federal 
bonds deposited in exchange for 00 ])er cent, of their value in 
national currency — albeit a great field was opened for them by 
the crumpling-up of the old State Banks by the war — are not 
yet very numerous in the South. There is only one in Selma, 
having, according to an official statement just issued, a capital of 
100,000 dollars; deposits, 241,000 dollars; and cash in hand, 
119,327 dollars. The bank, following a rule which experience in 
Europe has defined as safe and prudent, has thus an unemployed 
reserve equal to about a third of its liabilities. There are no 
banking funds visible in such places as Selma adequate to the 
amount of trade ; but the volume of business in cotton and other 
merchandise is transacted by credits established in New York, 
which are only banking in another form. 

Our old friend "the patent inventor" is always turning up. I 
made the acquaintance of him and the celebrated " Cotton Trans- 
planter " at niglit in the hotel, and on going out in the morning 
found him on a mound of sand exhibiting his machine in action 
to a crowd of negroes. The "Cotton Transplanter" consists of 
a little double-valved spade which is pushed by pedal force into 
the ground round the plant, and, closing convexly under the 
latter, lifts it up with as much of the earth as would fill a small 
flower-pot. The plant thus caught in a trap, may then be carried 
to a hole prepared for it elsewhere, with as little disturbance of 
the root as may be conceived. To amateur gardeners and lady 
florists this latest " Yankee notion " is as nice a little nothing as 
may be honestly commended, but it has no more relation to the 
cotton-field than a " B to a bull's foot." 



CHAITER XXV. 

Proj^ross of Tnido ami Poimlatioii in Montgomery.— Oponinj;; of tlio Mineral 
Distiicls by liailways. l<i\iNli\i>4- Ironworks.- C'oal and Iron Soanis in 
tlu> ('aliawlta l>asin. Tlio lU'd Mounlain its l)oposits of lla-matito.^ 
I'roxiniity of llio Warrior and I'aliaM'ba (^jal-liclds. — Recent Survoy of 
]\lr. Tail, F.O.S. Analy.-^osof Alabama (\)al and iron Ores.- — Aj^ricnltnral 
Qnalities of tlie Mineral l{e^ion. Probable (Jeolo^ieal History. — Kohitive 
Price of Monlevallo ("oal and Pennsylvania Hay. 

[l\IoNT0OMKRY, Ala. — Jan. 17-21.] 

Thk population of the cajiital of Alabama ia about 10,000. bcinp; 
the largest town population in tlie State, with the cxeeption of 
IMobile. lluntsville, in the valley of the Tennessee, ranks next 
to Montgonieiy and Sehna, in the nnnibev of inhabitants; but it 
may not be suvpvising if— somewhere midway betwixt the 
Teiniessee and the "prairie" land, in the mineral region now 
for the iirst time ]iiereed by lines of railway, about IMontevallo, 
Elyton, Oxmoor, or Talladega — a ])opulous plaee should arise to 
throw all the interior towns of Alabama into the shade. The 
capital is built on the Coosa — now, having received the waters 
of the Tallapoosa, beginning to take the name of the Alabanui 
Ixiver — over a swelling surface of hill and dale, that gives a line 
pietnrest^ue sweep to the semi-rural avenues, shaded by the 
C^hina tree whose clustered berries are said to make the robiu- 
redbreasta drunk, and radiating from a central dial where the 
hotels, the banking and insurance houses, and the business of 
the town are gathered, and where ]\lr. Knoek-'em-down, the po- 
pular auctioneer, round a large circular ])ond or fountain shows oif 
the paces of his mules to piu'chasing and other admiring negroes, 
and by his switch laid acn^ss the backbone has an art, as he 
rubs to sharp or flat, of making the aninud strikeout malignantly 
from behitul or pace gently forward, that seems more than 
straightly human. Loud laughs burst from the dial of Mont- 
gomery, disturbing the bankers, merchants, and brokers in their 
calculations, as j\lr. Knock-'em-down plays his liddle in this 
fashion over the spinal marrow of the mules for sale. The 
Capitol or State House, occupying a commanding euiinenee at 
one extremity of the town, overlooks tiie scene, and from its 
colonnade the eye wanders over a wide expanse of country, in 
which breadths of "prairie" are lost to view under successive 
belts of forest. 



CH. XXV.] STATE OF J LAB AM A. 173 

The low price of cotton at Liverpool does not much damp the 
business people of Montgomery, who are in good spirit, and 
speak only of the progress of trade and population during the 
last two years. Out from the central dial, along the business 
streets, an active country trade goes on all day long. The 
steamboats come to a high but sloping bluff near the warehouses 
and cotton yards, where the cotton bales are rolled down easily 
to the water-edge, and taken on board. The railway depots are 
in the same vicinity, and carry off large quantities of cotton to 
Savannah and other seaports beyond the limits of the State. 
But the steamers continue to do a good amount of business from 
Montgomery and Selma to Mobile, at a rate of freight from a 
dollar to a dollar and a half a bale. 

The superiority of Alabama as a cotton-growing State is well 
established, and so long as its *' prairies " last can suffer little 
diminution. But that which gives unparalleled importance to 
this section of the South, and is at present exciting the deepest 
interest, is its mineral wealth. The Warrior and Cahawba 
coal-fields and iron beds are easily reached from Selma by 
the Alabama and Tennessee, and from Montgomery by the 
North and South, railroads. From Selma, a journey of forty or 
fifty miles in the cars carries one to the Briarfield Ironworks, 
in Bibb county, where there is a large establishment for mining 
and manufacturing iron. The ore is brown haematite, and is 
gathered over five or six hundred acres in sufficient quantities to 
keep eiglit furnaces going. The mineral industry of Alabama is 
still so entirely in its infancy that little or no attempt has been 
made, even in the largest operations, to work the seams of 
haematite in the hilly ridges. Enough of ore is found embedded 
in the low ground, and in fragments and outcroppings scattered 
about, to enable costly mining work to be dispensed with. 
Veins of bituminous coal, five and seven feet thick, are found 
within a short distance of the furnaces at Briarfield. A few 
miles farther, on the same line of railway, are the Shelby Iron- 
works, which, though not so extensive nor so completely re- 
stored from the devastation suffered in the war, command a 
large and easy supply of superior brown haematite. In the same 
vicinity are the Montevallo coal-fields, which are annually send- 
ing a considerable sup]jly of bituminous coal into the local 
markets. Betwixt Briarfield and Shelby Ironworks are the 
Shelby lime-kilns, which first redeemed Alabama from the 
disgrace of importing lime from Maine, in the far North, while 
possessing inexhaustible supplies of the finest limestone for 
calcination in the world. Alabama lime is now in repute out- 
side the State. There is in this small district, therefore, a field 
of industry and wealth of the deepest interest. The railway has 
here brought us full on the Cahawba coal basin. The river flows 



174 MONTGOMERY. [ch. xxv. 

through Shelby, Perrv, and Dallas counties, till it joins the 
Alabama at Cahawba. Over a series of low hilly ridges, within 
a short distance north-westward, is the much larger coal aiul 
mineral field of the Black Warrior. At Centreville, in the 
heart of Bibb county, where the limestone projects from the 
banks of the river, and the older fossiliferous rocks of Alabama 
seem to find their southern extremity, the Cahawba coal-field 
may be said to terminate, though traces of the coal measures 
have been found in Perry county, south of Bibb. From Centre- 
ville the coal-field of the Cahawba extends north-eastward over 
a long anti-clinal valley to Murphreesville, upwards of a hundred 
miles, and spreads eastward over Shelby and Clair counties 
towards the Coosa river, which has a very interesting mineral 
development of its own, and for more than twenty years has 
been sending down coal and iron to Montgomery and Mobile. 
From Centreville to Murphreesville, along the course of the 
Cahawba, numerous beds of hrematite ore have been disclosed, of 
varying thickness, in some places fifteen to twenty feet, and in 
others thinning down to one or two feet. At the lime-kilns 
betsvixt the Shelby Ironworks and the Montevallo coal mines, 
the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad passes eastward to 
Talladega on the Coosa, where, on Talladega Creek, as well as 
on Cane Creek at Polkville, furnaces were in operation as long ^ 
ago as 1849, and a large amount of iron has been made without 
really opening the seams or doing more than gathering up the 
superficial and fragmentary deposits of ore. But, dropping at 
Lime Station into the cars of the North and South Railroad from 
Montgomery, wliich there, in its direct course north to Decatur, 
intersects the " Alabama and Tennessee," one is brought in a 
few minutes to Elyton, where the greatest wonder of all appears 
in the Red Mountain, so called because of the beds of red hgema- 
tite found in great thickness both on its north-western and 
south-eastern sides. The Red Mountain is a long range of 
heights traversing the eastern border of Jefferson county, and 
passing out north-eastward into St. Clair county, till it fades and 
loses its name in the Lookout range, stretching down from Chat- 
tanooga through De Kalb county in the north-eastern corner of 
the State. It is broken at various points by gaps and cross 
valleys, and is flanked by parallel ranges of lower heights, called 
Sand Mountains, which are in reality composed of the " millstone 
grit," so closely allied here with the coal measures. Murphrees 
Valley, at the head of the Cahawba coal-fields, opens upon it 
from the north ; and it trends north-east towards a long tract of 
valley ground, through which the Alabama and Chattanooga 
Railroad takes its course, called after "Jones," or " Roup," or 
other celebrity, at various stages, till it becomes " Will's Valley," 
some miles of which I travelled from the Chattanooga end. 



CH. XXV.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 175 

Over all this district the records of iron ore are as numerous 
as thej are authentic, and rude furnaces appear to have been 
erected at every few miles, and to have bloomed for a season, and 
then perished, under the difficulties of communication and such 
seasons of staprnalion as have often brouglit the great iron 
districts of P^ngland and Scotland themselves into straits. But 
the name of " Ked Mountain " is more strictly applied to the 
hilly range from where it approaches Elyton, the small county 
town of Jefferson, and extends some twenty or thirty miles into 
St. Clair county. The development of haimatite is here very rich. 
At Grade's Gap, near Elyton, ironworks were esfablished during 
the war, and two furnaces erected and put in blast, but they are 
silent now, though the iron ore is on the spot in large deposits. 
Eight miles farther north-east, the Irondale Works were begun 
in the second year of the war, and made a great deal of iron, but 
were burned down by the Federal troops, and have since been 
taken up by a Northern company, who are building a new 
furnace and a rolling mill and machine sliops. The red haematite 
is at this point also in great quantity. The beds of haematite in 
the Ked Mountain, and appearing on both sides of it, are in some 
parts ten to fifteen feet in thickness, though this cannot be pro- 
nounced uniform. The aspect of the country is that of mild 
volcanic upheaval, followed by a long course of denudation, in 
which the loosened materials have been swept away by the 
receding ocean and by the erosive action of the rivers, leaving a 
wavy and irregular stratification, in which the coal and iron beds 
are often cut and wasted, and, while traced over considerable 
spaces along the withstanding ridges, are deposited in fragments 
through the valleys, and reappear in the channels of the streams 
and branches. The dip of the strata at lied Mountain is south- 
east, and the ascent on that side is gradual ; while on the north- 
west the face of the ridge is more sharp and abrupt. The 
geological formation is much the same as at Lookout. There is 
the same crown of sandstone along the ridges above seams of red 
and brown ore, resting on beds of yellow clay, with the Silurian 
limestones uplifted in the valleys, and pas.sing under the carbo- 
niferous strata and millstone grit of the hills. The sandstone 
and carboniferous limestone are often dyed red by oxide of iron, 
and strata of silicious conglomerate are met with, in which 
innumerable pebbles seem to have been blended into a tough 
and compact mass by metallic influence. I have not discovered 
that seams of coal have been opened on the face of the Eed 
Mountain, immediately under or above the haematite, as I found 
on the Raccoon range near Chattanooga, but the striking pecu- 
liarity of the Eed Mountain is, that it divides by a narrow strip 
the Yv'arrior and CahawLa coal-fields, stretching over hundreds 
of square miles on either side of it, and approaching so close 



nn montqomery: fen. xw. 

togetlicr that the coal nieasuvcfi of the two bjisins bound some of 
tlie narrow valleys. The Cahnwba coal mines and the Southern 
coal mines are in operation within a few miles of the l{ed 
Mountain. A company, called " The lied IMountain Iron and 
Coal Company," was or<2;anized before the war, with a capital of 
a million dollars, and ae(][uired a larfi;e tract of the Ued and Sand 
Mountains and the Cahawba coal-tields. They formed a little 
town settlement at the base of the Ued Mountain, called 
" Oxmoor," where the iron stratum is very rich, and proceeded 
to open veins of coal on their coal-Held. Seventeen veins of 
coal have been discovered on the company's property, eight of 
which are two to four feet thick. But the war ])aralyscd the 
o})erations of the company, and left it disorganized and im- 
poverished to an extent from which it has been unable to 
recover, though coal continues to be jn'oduced from the out-crops 
in considerable quantity. This projjcrty, which remains in the 
hands of some of the most substantial men of Alabama and 
Georgia, could probably be purchased at a fourth of its cost ; or 
the proprietors would take an interest to that amount with any 
practical mining eomi)any who would bring an e<pial value to the 
development of the coal and iron. The lands of the com[)any 
are about 8,000 acres in exten', all accurately defined in the 
Government survey. Mr. Tait, of J\[ontgomery, a Fellow of the 
Geological Society of London, proceeded last fall, at the instance 
of the North and South Railroad, to survey the section of country 
on both sides of the railway from Boyle's Gap, where it cuts the 
Sand Mountains, to where it crosses the Warrior Iviver. The 
average distance from the Sand llills to the Warrior Iviver is 
about iifteen miles. Mr. Tait had only the most ordinary means 
of excavation at command, and he explored chieily along the 
channels of the creeks, and cleared and measured wherever prac- 
ticable the seams of coal observable to the eye. His conclusion 
was, that there arc five distinct coal-beds in the ui)j)er portion of 
the area, varying in thickness from thirty to sixty-six inches, 
and at no considerable depth below the sinface. The bed of the 
Warrior, where the railway crosses, he fourul composed of car- 
boniferous shale, which he supposes to be the roof of coal strata 
occupying a lower position than those found along the channels 
of the smaller tributaries. The seams of the U'^arrior basin, 
examined by Mr. T'ait, have a slight north- west dip, seKlom 
exceeding ten degrees ; whereas the seams of the adjoining 
Cahawba coal-iieUl have a south-east inelin.ation of forty-live 
degrees. The "strike" of the seams, however, is the same in 
both areas, and Mr. Tait's opinion is, that the volcanic force 
})assiug on its aiiti-cUnal axis along the Jones Valley, betwixt 
the two coal-fields, where the Silurian rocks out-crop in uniform 
ridges, exerted a lateral force in a south-easterly direction, and 



en. xxv.] ST.ITE OF .-11.1 li.lM/l. Ill 

raised up the Caliavvba strata to tlio liigli angle at wliicli it is 
found ; but that the two basins were originally one common 
plain, having the same general geological formation. IMr. Tait 
pronounces all the coal seen by him to be an excellent sctni- 
bituminous coal, without any iron pyrites or visil>Ie trace of 
deconijjo.sition wh(;n .subjected to the microscope. 'J'Ik; coal and 
iron ores of Alabama have undergorui many cliemical analyses. 
In the coal of the Warrior there is a little sulphur, while in the 
Cahawba there is none, or only the slightest trace. Professor 
iMallet, who now occupies the Chair of Chemistry in the Uni- 
vcrsity of Virginia, and who j)robably knows more of the 
mineral resoun^cs of y\I;ibarna from a scientific point than any 
other person living, found the coal of the Warrior, near Tus- 
caloosa, to be composed as ibllows : — 

Volatile comyjustible matter .... 40-00 

Fixed carbon 0407 

Ashes l-O!) 

• Moisture IIH 

Sulphur 1-00 



100-00 



The Cahawba coal, according to the same analyst, has the 
following elements : — 

Volatile combustible matter .... 30-08 

Fixed carbon .07'2:} 

Ashes f)-y0 

Moisture 0-79 

Sulphur Trace. 



100-00 



In a table drawn by Sir Charles Lyell, Alabama coal occupies 
the front rank of coals for producing steam. 

Analyses of the Alabama iron ores show from fifty to eighty 
parts of peroxide of iron, with varying but usually small pi(j- 
portion of lime, alumina, magnesia, and phosphoric acid. Their 
I>roduction of metallic iron is from 3G to 58 per cent. 

The country in which these mineral treasures are found pos- 
sesses considerable agricultural value. The soil produces corn 
and cotton, is well adapted for wheat and other small grain, is 
watered by numerous Ktreams, and in its agreeabhi blending of 
hill and valley would form not only a temperate and wholesome 
place of residence, but might be made to jn'oduce abundance of 
bread and meat and rnilk'and fruits. Yet it is still, over a great 
part, practically a desert. There arc no negroes, little population 
of any kind, and the hunter often finds wolves and other wild 
animals which have disappeared from other parts of the Stat*,-. 
While this absence of population involves the necessity of im- 

N 



178 MONTGOMERY. |(ii. xxv. 

HoiIIhl;' laUiMir -;ui oiuM'atioii w lilrli, cousIdiM-inp; the industry to 
1)0 pursiuvl, wtuiKl ho. noi-ossaiy in any oirrunistancos — it li;is the 
!ulvant;\i;\> o'i o\^\\^^{'\\\\x, all soeial ontanj2;KMnents and untai^onisni. 
The mineral settlers would be tVeo to ereato a society ot' their 
own, anil as rapidly as bands of miners and iron workers iiivadeil 
these mineral solitudes of Alabama they would be followed by 
a wliite farmiiii;- population to eultivatc the st>il and minister to 
their wants. 

The eoal and iron deposits o^ this State are now, when the 
railways have eut throui;!* them in all directions, by far the most 
ch>eply interestini); material fact on the American (\)ntinent. Of 
the extent or de})th of these deposits I should bo loth to speak in 
nny cxa^^'geratotl terni'^. The scams, so far as revealed, arc not 
of any remarkable thieknivss, and the slight and superficial degree 
in which they have been mined, as well as their geological pecu- 
liarities, t'orbld imaginary estimates from a business point of view 
o( their cubical contents and probable couimercial outcome. lUit 
they everywhei'C obtrude themselves on the most cursory obser- 
vation over thousamls of square miles, and coal and iron are 
found in such immetliate juxtaposition, and arc raised from tiie 
bowels of the earth into such clevati(.ms of surface, as must render 
their connnereial development much more easy than coal and iron 
can be dovcK>pt\l in most other parts of the world. The coal of 
Alaban\a. is marked by impressions of hpidodcndriDti and other 
magnilicent tlora found in the coal measures of Eurojie, and 
there can be no doubt that a high tropical vegetation at one time 
ilourished over all this mineral region of Alabama, and was sub- 
mergeil and covered with deposits of saml, since hardened into 
rock, imderwhii'h, save for a volcanic force that has tilted up the 
underlying rocks, and broken as on a wheel an arid sandy plain 
into hill and valley and fertilising streams, and the alluvium and 
mould of a later world, both the coal and iron would have re- 
mained forever concealed, or eonld only have been extracted with 
enormous ilitHoulty. All this subterranean wealth, exposed to 
the eye, is now brought within easy reach ; and not only the 
railways of AlabauKi, but the great lines of road which arc beinjij 
jmshed with extracn'dinary energy through the vast iStates and 
torritm-ios of the West to the shores of the racitic, as well as 
into Mexico and (\Mitral America, and the growing steam marine 
of the Culf, are opening an almost boundless demand on the 
spot for both eoal and iron. 1 take with me specimens of 
liematites tVom the Kcil Mountain district, o'( manganese from 
the neighbourhood of C'hatt;niO(\ga, and of the coal of JMontc- 
vallo. The hematite yields 515 per cent, of metallic iron ; and 
having seen the finest hematites of Cumberland and the North 
of Spain, I am uiistaken if the Alabama ore does not compare 
favourably ^^ ith them all. 



cii. XXV.] statu: of alajuma. 179 

Montevallo coal is sold in Montj^oracry at fifty cciitB j>f;r 
100 lbs. The coal of Fliiladclfjliia oarinot be laid down at 1(;h.s 
than a dollar per 100 lbs., and is no <l'julit a richer coal. 'I'lie 
coal of AIal>ama in lijj,Iiter and more bituniiriou.s than the Hiniilar 
coal of England and Scotland ; but it is pure and bright, and if 
efficiently mined could be profitably Hold at probably not more 
than five doliar.s per ton, or one-fourth the value here of the coal 
of PennHylvania. 

The dependence of tlic Soutli on the Noith extends to com- 
modities (jven more strange than coal and iron, of which th'ire is 
here in their raw state such abundance. '^J'hough Montgomery 
iH surrounded by tlu; prairie land of the State, bales of very 
coarse liay arc transported all the way from Kentucky, Pennsyl- 
vania, and Maine, and fetcli two cents a pound, or four times 
more than the price of the Montevallo coal. The Southern 
planters know lillhi of niaring and feeding stock, or saving grass 
and fodder ; or knowing and feeling the necessity of developing 
such elements of economy and profit since the negroes have 
ceased to figure as property in the balance-sheets of the plan- 
tations, they experience no common difficulties of capital and 
labour in introducing a new system. Such stock as existed on 
the farms, including even the hogs, was swept away in the war. 
Planters who had a thousand swine on their larids were left in 
some cases almost without one. Kceovery in such circumstances 
can only be a gradual process, even where there are the best 
intentions and the greatest energy. Mr. Ross, a Scotchman who 
had spent the early part of his life in a tropical clime, bought a 
plantation thirty miles south of Montgomery, a year or two ago, 
at twelve dollars an acre. He conijdains of the difficulty of 
cultivating his land by negro labour, of tiie inferior quality and 
high i>rice of goods and articles of ordinaiy consumption, and 
the dang(;r of falling into lawsuits with overseers and labour- 
contractors. Since the war, husbandry has been playing chiefly 
on the old string, and the abundance of the cotton crop shows 
that this string has been played with surprising success. Some 
say it has been played out. The fcc(;ipts of cotton in Mont- 
gomery in 1800-70 were 75,000 bales. This year nearly as 
many bales have been received already, and a great increase on 
the crop of the previous year is anticipated before the end of the 
season. The fadure of the planters to make any profit at present 
prices of cotton will most prol;ably give a great impulse to other 
strings of husbandry whieli have so far, under free negro labour, 
been too much neglected. 



N 2 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Night Journey to Mobile. — The Timber Kegion. — Tensaw River. — Emigrants. — 
Obstacles to Shipping in the Bay. — Extension of Railway Connections. — 
Exports of Cotton and Lumber.— Increase of the trade in Coffee. — Want of 
Capital. — Banks. — Paper Manufacture. — Cotton Oil Mills — Lesson to 
Planters. — The late Elections.— Health and Amusements. 

[Mobile, Ala.— Jan. 22-24.] 

It is only by actual travel in the United States that one attains 
to any adequate conception of the vastness of tlie territory. 
Figures, however deep and large, fall flat on the imagination ; 
but when new tens of thousands of square miles spread out before 
one's eyes weekly, as they have been doing steadily before mine 
for several months, the impression of magnitude becomes real, 
lasting, and all but overwhelming. I have been working in and 
round the State of Alabama since the beginning of December, 
often taking long stretches of a hundred miles or more at a time, 
and at Montgomery the labour of travel in Alabama miglit have 
been supposed to be about finished. Yet, from Montgomery, the 
capital, to Mobile, the seaport of the State, is one hundred and 
eighty miles, or from twelve to fifteen hours by railway. The 
total area of Great Britain and Ireland is 122,091 square miles. 
The area of Alabama is 50,272 square miles ; so that this one 
State alone is nearly equal in superficial extent to one-half of the 
United Kingdom, and is divided so comprehensively and almost so 
equally into stock and agricultural region, cotton region, mineral 
and manufacturing region, and timber region, as to constitute, in 
natural resources, a little empire in itself. Wliatever the future 
of Ahibama (and it seems mo:^t promising) may be, it is certain 
that the increase of its population in the ten years before the war 
was greater than the increase of population in Mas.sachusetts, 
about equal to the increase in Penn.sylvania, and double the in- 
crease in Virginia in tlie same period. The census of 1870, so far 
as it can be relied upon, accredits Alabama witii a somewhat larger 
population than in 1860 ; and if tlie development of the great 
resources of the State should now take a fresh start, there can 
be no doubt that Mobile will sliare its prosperity. This city is 
the common point to which all the southward river communica- 



CH. XXVI.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 181 

tions converge on the Gulf; and, besides, is well dovetailed into 
the railway circle. The railroads east and west draw off a great 
portion of the produce of Alabama to Savannah on the one hand, 
and to New Orleans on the other ; but Mobile, while capable 
of sharing much of this traffic, must always be the point of 
import to Alabama from Mexico, the West Indies, and South 
America, and the outlet of coal and iron to the Gulf. 

Having taken a night journey from Montgomery to Mobile in 
the " Pullman Sleeping Car" — all the comforts of which seem 
comprised in one relief, viz. horizontal position — I found myself 
at dawn in fine but heavy pine woods — the " timber region " of 
Alabama extending deep into the southern region of the State 
along the whole Gulf Coast — remarkably free from swamp or 
underwood, and with a green, dry sward under the trees. The 
railroad stops at a few shanties on the Tensaw River, whence the 
passengers and goods are meantime carried by steamboat twenty- 
two miles to Mobile. The Tensaw is in reality a bayou, issuing 
by one or more of its affluents from the Alabama River, and 
flowing back again into the same waters at the head of the Hay 
of Mobile. The boat moved down smooth waters, spreading and 
opening into various channels, and amidst tongues of land covered 
with heavy white reeds, till definition became lost in the embouchure 
to the bay, A good breakfast was spread on board the steamer 
for the people, among whom was a considerable number -of 
emigrants from the wide and pleasant but poor lands of Georgia, 
bound for the still wider, probably less pleasant, but, alleged to 
be, much richer lands of Texas. They had already travelled 
hundreds of miles. From Mobile to New Orleans is upwards of 
a hundred miles more, and from New Orleans to Texas is five 
hundred or a thousand or two miles, just as one may be inclined. 
They were working country-people, the same kind of folk as one 
sees passing from all parts of Europe through the British seaports 
to New York. This movement from east to west goes on con- 
stantly. Nothing stops it. Among these groups, but not of 
them, I espied a sturdy, sandy-haired young man, whom I fancied 
to be a countryman of my own. He told me he was from " Aber- 
deen awa','' and was the son of a small farmer. He had been 
working on a farm in the State of New York, and, after making- 
some little money, was now emigrating in general. He had no 
point of arrival. Soon after breakfast, a Georgian youth, much 
more weather-beaten than the Aberdonian, roamed round all parts 
of the floating castle in a state of semi-distraction. The ambition 
of this young man seemed to be to have a whole county, some- 
where in Texas, all to himself 

The stockades driven into the approaches of the harbour of 
Mobile to ward off Federal gunboats during the war still remain, 
and steamers have to thread warily a zigzog course through 



182 MOBILE. [oil. xxvi. 

little forests of piles before getting alongside the wharves. It might 
have been supposed that the Federal Government, so zealous 
hitherto in reconstructing the Soi\th, would have long since 
effaced these marks .of rebellion. Only the lighter class of sailing 
vessels come uj) to the city, the navigation being obstructed not 
only by such effete warlike defences, but by the natural bar at 
the mouth of the bay. The heavy cotton ships, that must have 
;-!,000 bales with et ceicras, lie off, and receive their cargoes from 
lighters, twenty to thirty miles from tlie city. Yet the ca})tains 
like this distance from port, as a protection from the demoralisa- 
tion and "skedaddling" of their hands, who for the most part are 
engaged out and in. The ofHee of the British Consul, Mr. Cred- 
land, is thronged at this period with skippers in search of runaway 
seamen ; and Captain Semmes, of the Alabama, who is settled 
here as ofhcial attorney of Mobile, has often to give legal advice 
and assistance in captures of a totally different kind from tliose to 
which in his more heroic days he Avas accustomed. "Jack" docs 
not like to be deprived of his land frolic by the dodge of anchoring 
twenty miles from port, and gets up scufHes at night on board 
ship, and, in the darkness and confusion, jumps overboard and 
pretends to be drowned, when, by a boat at hand, he has made 
ashore. The captains, judging from the frequency of such es- 
capades, reason how much worse matters would be were their shijis 
nearer the city, and rather like the wise provision Nature has made 
by the bar. But if " Jack " were more at liberty in port, he very 
probably would have less tendency first to drown himself, and 
then to run away. Mobile is not a place one can easily escape 
from, unless prepared to undertake a very long journey. It 
a])pears that foreign seamen in this free country cannot be arrested 
for breach of contract, but if tliey steal the ship's boats, or maim 
or kill the mate, they may, when caught, be made amenable to 
law and equity in some degree. 

The chief topics of interest among the merchants, keenly alive 
to the necessity of keeping abreast of the movements in other 
ports, are the opening and deepening of the harbour, and the ex- 
tension of the railway connections of Mobile with the interior. 
There is a prospect of the former being attended to ere long, and 
though the present railway communications of Mobile are by no 
means contemptible, a meeting of citizens has just been held to 
})romote a great new line, to be called the " Mobile and North- 
Western." There are already three lines of railroad in operation, 
viz. the ]\Iobile and Ohio, extending to Columbus on the Missis- 
sip])i liiver, and there falling into connection with other roads 
north and Avest — the Mobile and Montgomery, and the JMobile 
and New Orleans ; and there is in process of construction the 
^Mobile and Alabama (hand Trunk, which will place this seaport 
in direct communication with the mineral reo;ion of the State on 



cii. XXVI.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 163 

to Cliattanoofja. But the line at present obtaining the suffrages 
of the citizens is different from all tliese,- and is proposed to 
go to Jackson by a route twenty-four miles shorter than the road 
from New Orleans to Jackson, from Jackson into tlie Yazoo Val- 
ley in the iieart of the most fertile region of ]VIississi])pi, where 
large quantities of cotton Jire involved in annual difficulties of 
carriage by boat and b;iyou, and from Yazoo one hundred and 
twenty miles farther to Helena in Arkansas, where it will connect 
with roads giving a shorter run to St. i^ouis and Missouri than 
any meantime available. Mobile is fired, like so many other 
places, with the ambition of being the eastern terminus of the 
great Pacific lines, whicii will probably begin to be of some 
commercial value a hundred years hence, but is keeping a wake- 
ful eye all the time on more local and attainable advantages. 
The splendour of conception with which railway lines are mapped 
out in this part of the world exceeds belief ; nor can one declare, 
considering the de])lorable circumstances of the interior in the 
matter of common roads, and the facility of railway construction 
over a soft and level surface with su})erabundance of timber, that 
the S[)lendour is without a strong basis of practical utility, albeit 
there is a wide difference always betwixt conceiving and exe- 
cuting. The " Mobile and North- Western " involves a distance of 
some four hundred miles, and is estimated to cost four millions of 
dollars, though a million or two more may peihaps be safely added. 
Mobile engages to subscribe half a million of dollars, and the under- 
taking is legitimate enough both for subscribers and lenders ; but 
the promoters must be aware that the resource of State bonds is 
for the present played out in Alabama, and that an ample sub- 
scription along the proposed line cannot fail to prove a condition- 
precedent of its success. The merchants of Mobile feel that the 
question of interior communication is one of vital necessity to 
them. Savannah, by the great railway activity in Georgia, has 
been encroaching hugely in what was wont to be their fields of 
operation both in Alabama and ]\lississij)pi, while New Orleans, 
with its vast waterways, always turns u]) on its feet; and it is 
only by pushing new roads into productive territories hitherto 
unvisited by the iron liorse, jmd thus obtaining a control of cotton 
and other country jtroduce, ;ind of the return trade of agricultural 
sujiplies, that Mobile can ho])e to maintain its old place. The 
exports of cotton from Mobile exhibit considerable fluctuation 
since the close of the war. From upwards of 400,000 bales in 
1865-6, they fell to 251,000 bales the following year, when there 
was a general failure of production under the new system of labour ; 
rose to 358,000 bales in 1807-8, and fell again to 247,000 bales 
in 18G8-9. The total exjiorts last year were 298,523 bales, and, 
judging from the recei])ts up to this date, are expected to amount 
this year to 375,000 bales. The exports of lumber from this port 



184 MOBILE. fcH. xxvi. 

last year were 3,859,000 feet. The importation of foreign goods 
direct into Mobile amounted to 1,350,000 dollars, being probably 
not a thirtieth part of the value of its total exports, though com- 
paring very favourably with Savannah in direct foreign trade, 
where, notwithstanding the great traffic in cotton, direct transaction 
with the sources of foreign supply appears to be reduced to the 
lowest ebb. As an instance of what mercantile energy might do 
in many various forms to revive trade and independence in the 
Southern seaports, the importation of coffee from Rio to Mobile 
has increased in two or three years from 8,000 to 75,000 bags, 
and is likely to go on increasing, as the trade, of course, is much 
more direct and rapid and the charges of transportation much less 
from Mobile to the North- West, than from New York or Baltimore. 
But Mobile, like the other Southern seaports, labours, after the 
huge losses of the war, under a disability in want of capital. 
There are only three banks, and these of very limited means, in 
the city — the Bank of Mobile with a capital of 500,000 dollars, 
the Southern Bank of Alabama and the First National Bank, 
with capitals respectively of 300,000 dollars. But for the insur- 
ance companies, which have prospered greatly since the war, and 
which invest their surplus means in commercial paper to an amount 
exceeding the total capital of the banks, trade would have been 
much more crippled than it has been ; and, of course, a com- 
modity, so scarce in proportion to the work to be done as money 
here, is only obtainable on very high terms. 

There are no manufactures of any consequence in Mobile. If 
a cotton factory may thrive anywhere in the South, one would 
suppose that it must be in a town like this, of 40,000 inhabitants, 
among whom there is always a large class of white people to 
whom indoor labour is of vital consequence, and where the 
most active agencies of sale and distribution are to be found 
without cost or seeking on the spot. Paper is made in the 
neiglibourhood, but the water on the deltas of the Gulf is too 
turbid for this manufacture, and there are many places of natural 
water-power and pure running streams in this State where paper, 
which, unlike cotton, fetches three times the price of the raw 
material, might be manufactured with much greater success. 
There is a vast amount of cotton waste in every gin-house which 
a paper mill would gather up at little cost; and, not to speak of 
much other fibre wasting in the fields, there is a tall plant almost 
peculiar to Alabama called Okra, which I have seen growing 
in the gardens, and which is capable of field culture, that makes 
excellent paper pulp — root, stem, and branches. Very good 
" news " has been made from OTcra in a mill at Tuscaloosa. Eags 
are among the {'q\v things to which the tariff of the United States 
extends the privilege of free import, and the American paper 
makers, with a continent in their hands overflowing with paper 



en. XXVI.] STATE OF ALABAMA. 185 

fibre, and trusting to every device of law and taxation rather than 
exercise their own ingenuity, and gather up the wealth profusely 
growing at their feet, have been poaching on the raw material of 
paper, all too scarce, of other countries, and throwing upon otlier 
countries, of course, an 'amount of brain work and commercial 
activity in the discovery and development of paper material 
which is neither equal, republican, nor even, on the most indulgeht 
theory, commonly civilized. They have verily been trying to im- 
port Esparto grass all the way from &pain, as if the United States 
did not contain within themselves the resources of this kind, ten 
times told, of all the Spains ; and because it does not pay to make 
paper for tiie intelligent and reading people of America from grass 
grown in Spain, tbey would immediately inflict a much higlier 
duty, already from 20 to 25 per cent., on all foreign paper, and, 
of course, an equally increased amount of disgrace and despite 
on all American grass and American paper manufacture. The 
Southern people, who have heretofore suffered deeply from this 
system, and are crushed to the ground under it still, with the 
further bitternes.s, war-born, of being proscribed and misgoverned 
from Washington as " rebels," have no sympathy with the sui- 
cidal and incomprehensible follies of tariff legislation ; and one 
cannot but think that were the North once weaned from the lust of 
protection, misdirecting and perverting all its great commercial 
and political energies, and making Kepublican institutions them- 
selves a hollow sham and imposture as regards true material 
development, American spirit and ingenuity would soon search 
out the ways and means, and places too, for making paper as well 
as much more besides, not only enough for the United States, 
but to spare for export to less favoured countries. 

One branch of manufacture established at Mobile since the 
war is worthy of notice. The " Mobile Cotton Oil Mills " is a 
large establishment, employing a good many hands, and having, 
in buildings and machinery, probably near a hundred tliousand 
dollars. Cotton seed, forming the larger bulk of the cotton fruit, 
was in the old times deemed of little or no account. The planters 
seldom took the trouble even of returning it to the land as manure. 
It is now bought np from the plantations at from 10 to 12 dollars 
a ton, and is manufactured in this Mobile mill, and in similar 
works rapidly extending in the Southern towns, into cotton oil, 
cotton-seed cake, and cotton-seed manure. It is first carefully 
separated from the hull and wool in which it is encased, the 
latter being gatliered up and baled as merchantable cotton. The 
pure seed is then ground into meal, which is put into little narrow 
rectangular bags of a strong and peculiar texture. These are next 
placed in the yjigeon-holes of a powerful hydraulic press, which 
expresses the oil. The bags are then drawn, and their contents 
are the cotton-sccd cake. The oil Hows down from the press into 



I HO MOnilE. [c!i. XXVI. 

ImiiUh, w1i('.ti(!C ii Ih |)iirnj)C(l iiilo jin upper Htfo-y, and undcr^ocH a 
rcp^iiliir proccHM ol" refining'. VVJicii rtiarii'.io Ih to be inadc, tlio 
Hced-ciakc- irt ^^rourid l>y llic.Hjinic- hIoiich uh grind tlic K(;ed, and the 
iMc.al Ih mixed willi bone-diiHt or u\\w.\- prcju'rations of lirno, 
Ircalcfl with eheiiiiealH, and hceonie.s a " K-rtiliser " as ^ood, some 
Hay, aH Peruvian f^iiaiio. It, imhoM to the (armcrH at, HO to (JO (h>lliir.H 
per ton. The Hced-cake in also ex|)orted in hurKh-cds of" tons, 
ehiclly lo Mn<;huid, i'or Irediri;^ cattle; and l;ir;;(! (juantities of 
eoll.on Kced of the Southern States pass hy llu; nulls on the s[)ot 
to the same d'.'stimition, where it underj^oes a similar process of 
oil-inakin.L';. The (tottoiioil does not seem to have yet esiablished 
any V(uy lei;iliniale plaee in eonnneree, and lluetiiates somc- 
wli.'it niyst<Tiiinsly roinid olive oil and linse(ul oil. It is be- 
lieved that, cotlon-Hced oil is be,i;inninf:^ to ii;^'nre larj^cdy on onr 
tables nndcr a ccrlain veil as " (irst-rate salad oil." It is a verv 
pin'c and Ixanlifnl oil as relined in the Mol)ile mill, and there 
(MO he. no donht (»!" ilM nnlrilions ([nalilies. A <;-ood af^rieulturist 
must dennn- to so mndi valnablc, material bein,i;" taken away 
frum the soil with so little (dianee of its ever retnrning to it. 
Thr nianidacluicrs, of eonrse, allnrd every faeiiily to planters of 
f\(dian;^inj;' cotton seed for sced-eake and manure, and whether 
their trade is lt» W an cmlnrini;- one or not, there can be no doubt 
ol the. valuable lesson they are readin<;' the ])lanl('rs as to the 
eeonomisalion of the matmials about them. Il' the seed-cake 
willi the oil expn'ssed be good for I'attening cattle, the seed, with 
all the oil in il, must be a miudi richer '(wA^ and go muidi further 
in ailnn\lin-c with other stiilfs; while it is certain that there is no 
part of the woild where there is so nnudi room for ])rolitable 
.st(i(d<- tccding :is on the cotlon plantations of the Si>ulli. There 
are lit lie nnuddncs, to W bought for lAO or l!i)() dollers, by which 
any planter may separate tlu^ wool and the hull iVoin the seed, and 
reali/.e in his own farm-yard nearly all the economit-nl results of 
these (daboi'ale and e.\lensi\(' oil mills. 

The cili/.ensol I\lol)ile, taking the bull of misrule by the horns, 
havi". in the lale elcelions rooted out the traders on the negro vole 
from the IMunii'ipal (Jovernment, antl aided the general movement 
that has given a Conservative- 1 )('ni(nralic (Jovernor and House of 
Kcpii'senlativi's to the Slate. \\y the singular device of ])utting 
tish- hooks, when passing the ballot box. into the coats of ihc 
" ri'peatcis"— as ihe hired negroes addicted to voting several times 
over in lh(> \arious " piccincls " are called — an effectual check 
was given early on the day of the ])oll to a practice that had 
formerly perverted Hie (deelions. The white pco[)le are in great 
heart at llu'changt" made in their government; and, among other 
advantages ol' their political situation, boast of having in j\h'. 
•John I'orsvlh, edittn* of the .Ihtilji Jui/i.^/ir, one of tlie ablest 
writers in ihe Ihiitcd ISlates. The JMobilians, remarkable to say, 



CM. XXVI.] HTATE OF ALABAMA. 187 

own a ]tii(l(; in their "able cditorH" as in any other pilhirs and 
onianieiit.s of" \\\(\ city. 

'i'he ])('0|)U) of Mobile exliibit a little nervousness on the subject 
of the ]}ublic health of the city. They have had this season a 
visitation of the old plague of yellow fever, which, owing to the 
lateness of the first frost, had a more tlian usual jjrotracted rule, 
and retarded the return of the cotton-buyers and the progress of 
business. Tlie nuiiilfcr of cases was certainly very large — at one 
time as high as 1,500 — and yet the total mortality from yellow 
fever proper is stated to have been not more than 210. But there 
is no thorough health organization in Mol)ile, and no systematic 
vital statistics, which is a mistake, even in the lowest point of 
view ; for the effect of the strictest su[)ervisi<jn and registration 
has always been in such cases to diminish, rather than increase, 
alarm. 'J'liere is nothing so terrible;, nothing so sure to run riot 
in the imagination, as the unknown. Tiie jjcople who stay all 
year in the city think but little of this scourge, and the Jiritish 
(Jonsul, who is one of the " can't-get-aways," considers it very 
capable of successful treatment. There is much swampy and un- 
\vh(»l('S(jnie ground along the head and eastern sIiok; of the bay 
about the delta and bayous of the river. But the town is built 
on the western shore outwards to a more pleasant country. 
(Government Street is a magnificent avenue, two or three miles 
long, of pleasant residences, and grounds adorned with magnolias 
and other Southern plants which here bloom and flower in all 
their perfection. Farther out and round the edge of the forest 
there are also niany fine houses, built on firm dry soil, under the 
shade of the trees, and open to the sea-breezes. And now, wlu^n 
business is again in full progress, and health and pleasure seeru to 
meet, the Mobilians are as gay and lively a community as one 
could wish to see. The " Can't-get-Away " Club, wliich has 
greatly distinguished itself by its ])hilanthr()j)y in the history of 
Mobile, and is said to have sjxiut ;5(),(J(I() dollars in the late epi- 
demic, had an auuiteur peifoiniance the other night in the theatre, 
for the ])urpose of recuperating its funds ; and what a gathering of 
beauty and fashion was there ! In five minutes after the ftpening 
of the doors the wdiole pit and boxes of the theatre were filled 
with brilliant ladies, who more than shared with the amateurs on 
the stage, 1 suspect, the adjniration of the male portion of the 
audience. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The New Road from Mobile to New Orleans. — Sinirular character of tho 
Couatry. — The "Iron Horse" crossinif Bays, Lakes, and Lagoons. — 
Tho " liifijolets." — Kirst Impressions of New Orleans. — Goods on the 
Levee. — Tlie Custom House. — The Streets and Avenues. — The Shell Road. 
— Weather in January. — Vei,fetation. — Sunday in a City of "All Nations." 

[Nkw Ohle.vns, La.— Jaw. 2.') to Feb. 14.] 

TiiK opcniiT^ of tlio. Mobile and New Orleans Railway lias not 
only- reduced the journey betwixt the two cities to less than one- 
half the time consumed by the steamers, but opened a most curious 
country to observation. The road sweeps diag-cyially across the 
tract of Alabama, between Mobile Hay and the Mississippi State 
line, along the edge of an evergreen forest, where the yellow 
pine, as in its home and birthplace, grows tall and strong, while 
straight and taper as a lishing-rod ; and whei-e the number of 
little shanty towns growing up, and steam saw-niills puffing 
their white smoke into the bright sunny air, shows that an 
increasing lumber trade, with the iron track so near, is being 
carried on. The narrow strips of land, cleared of wood, are also 
being brought into cultivation, and the liegro and the mule are 
following clos3 in the wake of the woodsman with his axe and 
teams of heavy oxen. The railway, after crossing the Missis- 
sippian border, dip.^ down to the shore of the Mississippi 
Sound, with its many long and narrow strips of island shutting 
out a view of the Gulf, and seenung as if it were no Sound at all, 
but merely an extension seaward of the bays, lagoons, and 
shallow oozes of many-mouthed rivers, in Avhich the road now 
becomes enveloped as in an undefined maze of land and water. 
Pascayoulas, Beloxi, and Bay St. Louis are points at which the 
rails are carried by trestles across arms of the Sound, on which 
over long distances one never seems to lose hold of land, and 
yet is always above water, as if the country for miles round 
were under some temporary inundation. Yet the white sails of 
vessels are seen on both sides of the line, like the wings of sea- 
gulls that have wandered far from both sea and shore. Several 
rivers, flowing towards a common embouchure, produce in the 



cii. XXVII.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 189 

low flat land tliis labjviiitli of channels and marshy pools, and 
are met half-way by the salt waters of the Sound. At Bay St. 
Louis the train crosses over at least two miles of deep water on a 
strong but open trestle, of which the iron rails are the topmost 
lines, and on which the cars seem to hang as by a thread that 
the first tornado perchance may snap, and what then ? Yet in 
fair weath.er tiic passage is very pleasant, not in anywise alarm- 
ing, glides rapidly once more upon expanses of dry land, where 
there are sweet-orange groves and bounteous orchards, and where 
Ocean Springs, Mississippi City, and other watering-places of 
fantastic names afford summer shade and recreation to citizens of 
Mobile and New Orleans ; and then bounds into a broad 
savannah — dry and deeply grassy plains — on which a thousand 
herds of oxen might pasture, so far extending that the forest 
at leno,th disappears, and only becomes visible again on some 
elevation of surface like a vapoury battlement in the distant sky. 
There is little human or animal life on this savannah, which is 
a mere bagatelle to the far greater " prairies " of the AVest, and 
it is easy to perceive that the American Eagle, in the universal 
spread of its wings, is but pecking feebly with its bill at the 
vastnesses round its borders. But, though by what agency or 
for what purpose is not to be defined, this savannah has at 
various points been set on fire, and the flames, licking up the 
long grass, and glowing scarlet-red even in the sunlight, with 
their smoke and trail of blackened soil and ashes, form a striking 
feature in the landscape as the train sweeps past. Then come the 
" trembling prairie," and new watery mazes spreading on all 
sides, till they seem to block the way, and render advance a 
mystery. The cars up to this point have been going at the rate 
of nearly thirty miles an hour, with a smooth and easy motion, 
as of wings rather tlian of wheels ; but the palpitating track of 
the "trembling prairie" brings the prudeiit engine to a more 
temperate speed. Over many miles the road on this section has 
been made by excavating the soil on either side, and throwing 
it over aniong heavy layers of timber on the track. But as 
rapidly as the dredging machines scooped out the earth the 
broad ditches thus made filled with water, so that the narrow 
iron road passes along parallel canals now on this side and 
now on tliat, and sometimes on both sides together, and ever and 
again comes to places where lagoons expand over miles of 
territory, and rivers seem to lose themselves in unseen channels 
amidst the weltering waters. Little bits of land and human 
habitati(ms apjjear in the distance above the flood and marshes, 
and one looks abroad with curious wonder on the scene at the 
stations whither floating houses have penetrated by patient navi- 
gation from some dry shore with goods and groceries, powder 
and shot; and where men and boys are always jumping into 



100 NEW ORLEANS. [en. xxvn. 

canoes half-filled witli wooden ducks, and paddling tlielr way in 
all directions, no one knows where by name, for their game. The 
train passes on, and as one glances ahead along the shining rails, 
with their flanking canals, it seems to be running direct into the 
sea, which appears to swell up into communion with the sky on 
tlie bright horizon ; and over parts of the sea, sure enough, it 
lias oftentimes to pass on crutches ; but as it dashes on, the sea 
retires, and stretclics of "trembling prairie" reappear, and one 
begins to look for the spires of New Orleans. Away to the 
north-west a speck is seen on the sky, and the glas.-s brings out a 
flag-staff and pennon. It is Fort Pike, on Lake Pontchartrain, 
and in a \'Kt\y minutes more, while one is looking eagerly for 
Pearl River, and thinking that it must have lost itself somewhere, 
the train bounds upon the bridge over the Rigolets, a deep 
cliamiel in which a strong current flows from Lake Pontchartrain 
to Lake Borgne, in the Sound, swallowing up the waters of the 
Pearl in its course, and forming the line of navigation from 
Lakeport in Pontchartrain for the New Orleans steamers and 
coasters trading with JMobile and other Gulf ports. The railway 
works snan the Rigolets slantwise, and have a drawbridge in the 
centre for the navigation 100 feet wide, complained of as not 
being large enough. Yet still more lakes and serpentines! What 
a country for dn.ck-shooting ! Animated nature here consists of 
amphibious beings, with ducks at one end of the scale, and men 
bent on their destruction at the other. On crossing by a trestle 
work farther on the southern end of Lake Catherine — one of 
those smaller fresh-water seas, but considerable lakes, that fill 
up more than one-half the space betwixt the great Pontchartrain, 
the iSound, and the Mississippi li'ver, and would seem to show, 
if experience did not establish the fact that the deluge is sub- 
siding, how easil}'- all might blend into one, and the whole 
country be placed under sea once more — the surface of the water 
is covered with myriads of wild ducks, and many shots are fired 
at them from the cars, but being from pocket-pistols do very 
little execution, though many of the ducks are quite within 
range, and do not appear to be anywise alarmed by the noise of 
the train. They are so numerous, indeed, that one does not see 
very well how they could get awav even if they Avere scared. 
Leaving lakes and ducks behind, the railway now passes into a 
scraggy country, where the wheels of the cars have a firmer 
ring, and where lioary cypresses stand in pools of water covered 
with miasmal moss, hanging like gigantic beards from every 
branch and twig, and giving to the melancholy trees most 
melancholy and weird-like shapes, with undergrowths of cane- 
brake twenty feet high, and lowly palmettos growing in fan-like 
tufts along the shallow swamps. The species of orchis seen 
depending from the trees in all marshy places in the South, when 



CH. xxvii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 191 

gathered and skutclied, is found to consist of a bright tough 
fibre, the finest imitation of horsehair ever seen, and now couiing 
into use in upholstery. 

At length the engine slows, the train-bell tolls, and the cars, 
as the familiar fashion of American railways is, pass througli 
suburban streets, round markets and vast warehouses, and along 
the levee, amidst acres upon acres of sugar barrels and cotton 
bales on one hand and a forest of ships on the otfier, to the 
axis on which all the whirl of life in the city of New Orleans 
revolves. 

Formerly the merchandise of New Orleans used to be piled on 
the broad open levee, and probably did not come by much harm. 
The cotton bales, as soon as landed from the river boats, had to 
be drayed to the cotton yards and steam-presses, and were not 
moved again till the ships were ready to take them as cargo. 
The molasses, harming under a hot sun, probably suffered most. 
But of recent years a comj)any has been incorporated, with com- 
pulsory powers, to erect sheds, and place all produce intended to 
lie and be sold on the levee under cover, and has already exer- 
cised its powers to a large extent, not without murmurs of 
dissatisfaction from the merchants, ill at ease under this innova- 
tion on their ancient freedom and habitudes of business. The 
barrels of sugar and molasses newly landed on the levee have a 
tendency to be the first sold, and those in the sheds to become 
old stock ; and, moreover, the shedding process adds to the 
charges on imports and exports, which have increased, are 
increasing, and, if the prosperity of the port is to be regarded, 
must be diminished. It may be remarked, byway of dismissing 
a wide subject, that in the great burst of enter})rise and temp- 
tation to "grab" since the war in many parts of the South, 
powers of improvement Iuia^c been seized and engineered through 
corrupt Legislatures by private companies, which are cssentiallj 
public and municipal powers, and that a city corporation or river 
trust, carrying out the same in the public behoof, while im])osing 
a new charge, Avould dissolve a host of discontents by reducing 
from the accruing profits either this or various other charges of a 
like kind. The Mississippi liiver is here the largest commercial 
interest ; and, on stepping down from the levee to have a straight 
look at the " Father of Vs^aters" — the drainage of 3,000 miles of 
territory in length, not to speak of breadth — one sees that he is 
only a little broader than the Thames betwixt Westminster and 
Blackfriars, and really flows in a calm, slow, majestic current, as 
if he did not mean to overflow anybody or sweep anything away. 
But when one inquires the depth of the JMississippi at New 
Orleans, the answer is " IGO feet!" New Orleans is built on 
one of the great loops of this enormous volume of water. It has 
the Mississippi in front, the Mississippi on both flanks, and lakes 



192 NEJr ORLEANS. [en. xxvii. 

or seas Pontchartrain and Maurepas overhanging it in the rear. 
Tlie buihlers have gone quite methodically to work, and have 
erected streets behind streets across the segment of" a circle along 
the river front — great marts of cotton, sugar, hides, tallow, oil, 
and groceries — and as rapidly as they have built behind, the 
Mississip])i in its grand and silent way, without negro labour or 
charges of any kind, has been forming for them new land and 
sites in front. Streets which, no farther gone than thirty years 
ago, were No. 1 on the levee, are now No. 3 or 4, so busily has 
the Mississippi been Avorking out the fortune of New Orleans, 
wliile New Orleans herself may not have been turning it all to 
the best account. 

Shooting straight up from the levee into the loop is Canal Street 
— a broad, noble thoroughfare, with ample carriage ways and ban- 
quettes for pedestrians on either side, and a dais in the middle, partly 
carpeted with grass, on which all the city cars have a common 
rendezvous — a street of tine stores and warerooms, where any 
stranger has a key at hand to all parts of New Orleans. At the 
corner of Canal Street, close on the levee, is the Custom House 
— an enormous pile of Maine granite, imjiosing, but somewhat 
out of character with the place — Custom House, Post-ol!ice, and 
Law Courts all in one, with a gaunt and vacant interior, an 
unfinished roof, and settling down under the weight of its 
granite blocks on its soft foundation. Even in the matter of 
colour, mottled grey and red, it is not in harmony with the light 
and aerial structures or the " floating castles " around it. The 
architecture of the Custom House seems a mistake at once of 
taste and finance. But there are many other grand buildings in 
New Orleans, which it is scarcely my province to describe. 
Blanching off from one side of Canal Street are narrow but fine 
old streets, bearing royal French names of the ancient Bourbon 
era, with an air of Gallic tidiness about them, and all the choicer 
wares of France in their shops — the original town of New 
Orleans when Louisiana was a French possession, and still 
largely the French qriarter of the city. On the other side are 
Magazin Street, where the latest literature is doubtless on sale ; 
St. ('harles Street, where the magnificent St. Charles Hotel is to be 
found ; Carondelet Street, where large business is done in cotton 
and tobacco, and Shylock and Antonio meet together on the 
plain-stones to negotiate a great variety of loans; and Baronne 
Street farther on,i where a Legislature of negroes and political 
adventurers, sitting in the ]\lechanics' Listitution, are popularly 
supposed to be legislating in the most stupid fashion, and selling 
the community all round. In the same locality is the Medical 
College — an institution of a different kind — that, with all the 
stability and humanity of science, and the social fame of wise 
and skilled physicians whom Pro-Consul Butler, though he tried 



CH. xxvii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 193 

imprisonment, could no more shake from tlieir orbits than he 
could blot out the stars, holds on its benign course amidst 
revolution and commercial convulsion, as if it were an angel from 
iieavcn sent down in infinite love and mercy to snlTering man- 
kind. The streets branching out from the "all-nations" side of 
Canal Street extend a long way across the loop, and at the end 
of every block have their busy and almost equally prominent 
intersections ; but owing to the old custom in Louisiana of taking- 
possession by " arpents " from the river front, as well as to the 
semicircular character of the river definition, it lias been impos- 
sible to give to New Orleans the parallelogram formation so 
f )ndly cherished by the planners of American cities. Yet, by a 
gentle twist or curve, the " all-nations " streets of New Orleans 
do, with a shock of the city cars affecting slightly the spinal 
curve of the passengers, get into new and long suburban avenues 
— named after the nine Muses, and other heathen goddesses to 
boot — rows of fine sweet timber dwellings, with verandahs and 
balconies, flower-])lots, and tower-like cisterns, and sometimes a 
whole acre of white clover, with plum, peach, and fig-trees all 
round, where the family life of New Orleans blooms in no 
common quietness and natural splendour. These avenues — albeit 
New Orleans is much better paved in its business parts with 
broad dressed blocks a foot or eighteen inches square than the 
im])erial city of New York, save, perhaps, on the levee, where 
after rain there is a curdled depth of ooze, in which Sambo and 
his mides are in momentary danger of losing themselves — stretcli 
away into mere wilderness and swamp. But running across the 
head of the loop to Lake Pontchartrain, is the famous Shell lioad, 
seven or eight miles long, straight as an arrow, hard as flint, and 
smooth as a backgammon board, along which the " bloods " of 
New Orleans drive their fine horses and buggies with marvellous 
celerity. Many quiet parties also take advantage of this splendid 
drive. The racecourses of New Orleans, where the fastest horses 
are put to their mettle twice a year, are on its side, and half-way 
houses invite a halt amidst the swamp on plots of sweet verdure, 
and under fragi-ant bowers, Avhere a score or two of buggies are 
always hitched up, and cocktails and sherry-cobblers are dis- 
])ensed to thirsty souls sccnndvm artcm. 

The weather in New Orleans, in the las't days of January, is 
warm, bright, almost fiercely sunny ; but when the air is clear, 
and the heavens high, one basks in it with all tlie delight of 
contrast to some other parts of the world at the same time of the 
year. On the other hand, when the clouds, vapoury exhalations 
of sea and lake, gather over the city, the atmosphere becomes 
close and sultry, and one prays that the leaden heavens may 
crack, and that Sol, though it were in hottest anger, may show 
himself again. And, by and by, the prayer is heard — tlie rain 

() 



194 NEW ORLEANS. [ch. xxvii. 

ftills in a plump, peals of thunder roll along the sky, and sheets 
of blue liglitnino- flash through the darkening air ; but the sul- 
triness does not abate yet a little while. One goes to bed 
amidst peals of thunder and heavy splashes of rain, and towards 
morning, dreaming of a railway train, is startled by a tremendous 
crash, as if the engine had exploded, and the rails, turning up on 
end, were tearing the cars into ribands. Throwing open the 
casement, the street is seen to be several feet deep in flood ; the 
square slab-laid gutter on either side, that seemed large enough 
to admit a Liliputian flotilla into the city, is buried under the 
deluge, and a smooth canal-like surface of water overspreads the 
avenue from croup to croup. But the rain is falling more gently; 
the artillery of the heavens has discharged its last round ; a 
current becomes perceptible to the eye, and it is evident the 
waters are flowing away somewhere ; the sun breaks out, and in a 
few hours all the streets of the city are dry, clean, and sweet, and 
the solar rays falling with golden splendour on tower and spire, and 
lighting up the nooks and cramiies of a crowded town. New Orleans 
becomes loveable again. The drainage of this curiously situated 
city flows back from the river towards the interior of the loop, 
where it is helped on by steam-pumps into the swamp — im- 
perfect, but as good as can easily be devised. The deposition of 
moisture in the intervals of rain and sunshine is very heavy, 
covering the lobbies, staircases, and all the interiors with a 
clammy sweat as of oiL At the same time vegetation is endued 
with extraordinary force. The blooms of early fruit-trees unfold 
themselves with a motion almost visible. But in the gardens 
there is a curious worker in the darlv. A crawfish raises a little 
tumulus, with a hole in the middle of it, that grows night after 
night, till in its spiral formation it becomes a small Tower of 
Babel ; the cunning artificer of which, however, is unseen, 
retiring on its line ot retreat to the depths beneath with masterly 
skill. 1 have put the question whether, under all the phenomena, 
New Orleans may not be a floating island ; but this supposition 
is stoutly contested in argument, and only by force of humour, 
in geography no force at all, is an admission obtained that " New 
Orleans does mayhap swing a little! " 

Sabbath morn, after the traffic and amusement of the week, 
nightly balls and operas, pleasant card-parties, and masked 
assemblies, dawns over New Orleans with sacred calm and 
serenity. Every place of business is closed, labour is suspended, 
and, save the quiet trot and jingle of the city cars conveying 
visitors from the centre to the circumference, and worshippers 
from the circumference to the churches and chapels in the centre 
— the Presbyterians, unmincing Calvinists, next to the Koman 
Catholics the most prominent — peace and quietness prevail. 
It is remarkable, considering the mixture of races and nation- 



ciT. xxvii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 105 

alities, with their widely different up-bringing and temperament, 
liow becomingly, and with what mutual esteem and respect, all 
creeds and denominations here proceed on the Sabbath-day to 
worsliip God in their own forms, and to sit devoutly under their 
own vines and fig-trees. The [Scotch Presbyterian can observe 
the Sabbath as calmly and undisturbedly in New Orleans as 
in his native glen ; and were it possible, setting aside all scep-r 
tical "gallimaufry" on the one hand and all austere mechanical 
formality on the other, to enter fully into the Divine idea of the 
day "made for man," what a sublime rest — what a refreshing 
and composing draught from the fountains of Eternal Truth and 
Knowledge — would it be to all bodies politic ! 



y 



CHAPTER XXVllI. 

Population of New Orleans. — Natural Resources.^ — Revival of Business 
since tlie War. —Cotton.-— Sugar.- Toliacoo. - Rice and Grain. — Financial 
])isal)ility.~ Disproportion of Imports to Exports.— Great Decline of 
Imports of Coffee and Internal Trade. 

[Nkw Orleans. — Jan. 25 to Feb. 14.] 

Ni:w Orleans, wlien one has scon rouiul it all, is a large city, 
large not only as it u, but large nUo because it might be so much 
larger. The population, according to the census, in which no 
one here or elsewhere implicitly believes — such is the chasm 
betwixt public confidence and the simplest acts of adminis- 
tration — is 140,920 white, and 50,499 black and coloured per- 
sons. But 1 am intbrined by a statist of some authority that 
40,000 or 50,000 may be added to this result of a lackadaisical 
enumeration with some confidence. The number of voters 
polled in New Orleans in great election times is within a few 
hundreds of 40,000, and since the adult males can hardly be 
more than one in five or six. New Orleans on that criterion may 
be taken as having, in round numbers, a quarter of a million of 
inhabitants. Yet it is not extent of population that strikes 
attention so much here as the great compass of rich territory, 
with rare and varied resources of production, and the easy and 
abounding means of transit by an extraordinary combination of 
navigable rivers, seas, and lakes. 

The late war fell with as severe a blight on New Orleans as on 
other parts of the South. Though the early occupation of the 
city by the Federal forces saved it, as well as Louisiana, from 
much of the mere powder-and-shot devastation of war, that in 
the case of a more obstinate defence, simply impossible, might 
have fallen upon it ; and though General Butler, while busying 
himself in domiciliary visits to the houses of planters and other 
wealthy "rebels" with no strictly ])ure intent, employed the 
negroes, chunorous for food, in making a branch way to the Shell 
lload and cutting one more canal through the city, with sanitary 
results which, however largely reported and believed in the 
North, must be accepted cum grano salts on the spot : yet the 
normal life of New Orleans w^as as completely suspended as if 
its throat had been cut; its most vigorous men were drafted a 



cii. xxviii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 1-97 

thousand miles away into the Confederate Army ; little or no 
cotton was brought to market, and the cultivation ot" the sugar- 
cane was almost totally abandoned ; mercantile capital and bank 
and insurance stock were consumed as in a furnace ; and much 
of the solid house property, worthless for the time, rotted where 
it stood, and passed like furze under the harrows of a general 
destruction and decay. It must ever be a wonder how rapidly 
New Orleans, after this terrible ordeal, has become what she 
is now. 

The rapid re-establishment of business in New Orleans is in 
no branch more marked than in cotton, and to understand the 
full significance of this fact it must be borne in mind that New 
Orleans is a full geographical degree south of the Cotton Belt, 
and that little cotton is grown Avithin a hundred miles of the 
(Crescent City. But in virtue of its commanding situation on the 
JNlississippi and its tributaries, flowing through the richest lands, 
penetrating east and Avest to every cultivated field up to the 
northern limits of the cotton region, and yet so near the mouth 
of the great river as to give rapid export to the Gulf and the 
Atlantic, New Orleans has been enabled, in fiice of intersecting 
lines of railroads giving power and reach to other markets, and 
rendering this magnificent water-communication, as might be 
supposed, of less and less account, to become again the mart of 
about one-third of all the cotton grown in the United States. 
The export of cotton from New Orleans in 1860-Gl reached the 
enormous total of 1,915,852 bales, which was somewhat ex- 
ceptional, but still showing, wdien a large crop comes, where its 
overflowing is sure to be. As soon as the war closed, the accus- 
tomed pre-eminence of New Orleans began to appear. Her 
export of cotton in 1865-6 was 768,545, and last year (1869-70) 
it increased to 1,185,050 bales, of which half a million went to 
Liverpool, a quarter of a million to Havre, 115,000 to New 
York, 53,000 to Boston, and 70,000 to Bremen, with smaller 
quantities to nearly every manufacturing centre from St. Peters- 
burg to Vera Cruz. This year already, with only one-half the 
season gone, 850,000 bales of cotton have been landed on the 
levee. The great flow of cotton New Orleans-ward has all the 
more probability of continuing, seeing that the tendency of in- 
creased cultivation is to shift from the East to the West, bringing 
tiie bulk of the product more and more upon the Mississippi and 
the Western rivers, by which its transport to New Orleans is so 
natural and easy. Tlie finer and longer stapled cotton grown in 
Mississippi and Louisiana has naturally made New Orleans a 
special market for this description, and the classification here has 
hitherto not only been very minute, but always a grade or two 
above the cotton bearing similar titles in Liverpool. The general 
deterioration of quality, however, since the war, remarked else- 



11)8 NEIF ORLKAi^S. [cii. xxviii. 

where, is also complaineil of lierc ; .iiul orders from CoiitiiuMilal 
s])ijnuMa for Now Orleans " middling " and nj)wards can witli 
dillieulty be idled this season. The relaxed control of labonr 
niider ne2;ro ennincipation, consequent slovenly cultivation .and 
mitimely picking, and the large number of sporadic growers with 
no permanent interest in their farms or even in cotton-growing as 
a life-industry, are no doubt the chief causes of a downward 
lendeney of ipiality, under Avhieh " ordinary " bcconuis but the 
" low ordinary " of former tinu>s, and the highest grades are 
more and more scarce. The general belief is that the best-con- 
ditioned cotton, both upland and bottom land, is grown by small 
white farmers who plant a few acres as a mere element in their 
general system of husbandry, and cultivate and i)iek the cro]) 
with the labonr chietly of their own families. The change 
])assiiig over the cc^tlcni-planting industry aiK)rds a fair oppor- 
tunity for ado])ting a eonnnon standard of quality, and making 
the Liverpool classilication, with probably some little extension 
at either end, the general rule, whereby all purposes would be 
met, and transactions be greatly simpliiied and assured. A new 
( 4>tton K.Kchango Board, being organized in New Chileans, may 
aid in introducing this and other desirable im])rovcmcnts in the 
system of dealing. The nunvhants and cotton-factors of jS'ew 
( )i leans, on resuming business after the war, adopted the old 
system of uuiking advances to cotton planters at a great distance 
from their centre ; but, under the serious dilHeulties of disor- 
ganized labour and want of capital, did not hud such a ])oliey to 
answer, and a new class of houses are springing up, mostly Jews, 
who, by establishing stores in the little towns near tiie ])lanta- 
tions, an> becoming middlemen through whose hands the cotton 
passes from the growers into the market of New Orleans, and 
whose conditions of advance are almost necessarily marked by a 
degree of rigour that was unknown in former times, and that 
will probably grind and im])overish the mass of poorer culti- 
vators, white anil black, for a long j^eriod to come. 

While New Orleans is thus holding its old place so well in 
cotton, it is very striking that in sugar, the chief staple of 
Louisiana, the leeway of the war should be very slowly and 
feebly recovered. The exports of sugar and molasses from New 
Orleans do not aifoid any criterion of general progress as in the 
case of cotton, because the sugar of Louisiana goes chiefly into 
domestic consumption, not in New Orleans and Louisiana alone, 
but by " up-river " tratlic in all parts of the AVest where Ntnv 
Orleans has natural and indisputable conunercial relations. The 
consumntion of sugar in other parts of the United States is 
supplied by the raw sugars of Cuba and the AVest Indies, 
brought into New Vork and other Northern and I'^astern ports 
to be rcliucd, and thence distributed t(^ all parts of the l^nion, 



CH. xxviii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 199 

the Western field of Louisiana included. The exports of sugar 
and molasses from New Orleans are thus only such fragments of 
the native product as, in the eccentricity of commerce, lind their 
way into the Atlantic seaports, and are not suggestive of any 
general result beyond the fact that they are there saleable, and 
take a place beside the sugars of the Northern refineries. In 
18fiG-7 there were thus exj)orted 2,/529 hlids. and 2,199 barrels 
of sugar, and 21,89-'* barrels of molasses ; and, in 1800-70, 
l,80r, hhds. and 4,094 ban-els of sugar, and 42,212 barrels of 
molasses. But irom a re[jort, published here with the acceptance 
of the tradc,^ 1 am enabled to give the following results, which 
let one see down to the roots of sugar production in Louisiana 
before and since the war. The produce of sugar in 1861-2 under 
the "old process" of open kettles was .-389,204 hhds., and under 
the " rcifining and clarifying" proces.s, 70,140 hhds. — or in all, 
528,321,500 lbs. In 1809-70, the produce of sugar under "old 
process" was 73,471 hhds., and of "refined and clarified" 
13,019 hhds.— or in all, only 99,452,940 lbs. So that while the 
production of cotton in the Southern States has in five years 
about reached the level it had attained under slave labour before 
the war, the production of sugar is still barely one-fifth what it 
was in 1801-2, and had almost been, with some fluctuations, 
several years before. Tlie contrast is so remarkable, and so 
clearly not to be accounted for by any " free labour difficulty," 
as to indicate some special obstacles affecting this branch of pro- 
duction in Louisiana, and requiring to be carefully investigated. 

The tobacco market in New Orleans, though with more ap- 
parent reason, also recovers but slowly tlie position it held before 
the war. The recci])ts of tobacco at this ])ort in 1859-00 were 
80,955 hhds. In 1807-8 they had, from almost total disappear- 
ance during the war, risen only to 15,304 hhds. ; in 1808-9 they 
increased to 28,020 hhds.; and they again fell in 1809-70 to 
19,093 hhds. The receipts and exports of tobacco at New 
Orleans remain lower than, with the exce})tion of the war years, 
they have been at any period for half a century. The merchants 
of New York, by ])usliing their capital among the Western 
growers when New Orleans was closed by the blockade, obtained 
an ascendency which they continue to hold with tenacity; and 
Louisville, profiting by the same state of things, has become one 
of the greatest tobacco markets in the United States. But the 
merchants of New Orleans are giving due attention to this 
ancient branch of the trade of the city ; the official inspections 
are conducted with great efficiency ; and there is much confidence 
tliat by a good regular market and reduced charges New Orleans 
will win back, in course of time, a great portion of this almost 
lost traffic. The tobacco of New Orleans is drawn chiefly from 
' " Stutemcut of Suyar and Kico Crops," by L. Bouclioreau. 



200 NEW ORLEANS. [cii. xxvm. 

Kentucky, ]\[issoui-i, Illinois, and Tennessee. Very little is said 
of Louisiimian tobacco ; and the production of the iState, I 
imagine, must be very limited. But the soil of Louisiana yields 
prime tobacco, and any keen smoker who has had a course of the 
" hay and stubble " of the inland towns of the South relishes 
with almost Elysian fervour the " peri(pic " of ISew Orleans, so 
line in llavour, and yet so strong in all genuine properties. There 
can be no doubt that were tobacco steadily cultivated in Louis- 
iana, the trade of New Orleans in this commodity would take 
all the sooner a fresh start, and that the native product Avoukl 
come to be in large demand for export, more especially to Eng- 
land and iSeotland, where there are no Oovernment monopolies, 
and where people who smoke like to get, with as little eireum- 
locution as possible, at the Xicotinc in its best and highest form. 

Eice is a rapidly increasing product in Louisiana since the 
close of the war, and is declared in fifteen parishes, where it is 
now successfully cultivated as well as prepared in tirst-elass mills, 
to have reached during the past year 100,748 barrels of L'OO lbs. 
The receipts of Hour at Xew Orleans are very large, amounting 
in 18t)0-70 to l,(i-4 1,477 barrels, of which 55G.li23 barrels were 
exported ; but the ettbrts made during the last two or three 
years, including the erection of a patent elevator after the stylo 
of Chicago, and forming a prominent architectural feature on the 
levee, to divert some of the many millions of bushels of wheat 
of the North-West, destined for Liverpool and other British 
ports, by the southern river route to the seaboard, have so tar 
been attended with only partial success. The exports of wheat 
during the past season were under half a million of bushels. 

It is obvious that whether in recovering trade lost or diverted 
by the war. or in conquering a share of new^ trade that may be 
more naturally and eeonomically directed from this point than 
from anywhere else, New Orleans must labour under great dis- 
advantages from the destruction which passed over its mercantile 
and banking capital in the disastrous years from 1860 to 18Go ; 
and this fiict meets one at every turn in the survey of the com- 
mercial situation. Where New York, travelling out of its sphere, 
supplanted New Orleans by large and free capital, and by naval 
and military power during the Avar, the '* Imperial City," of 
course, continues to hold tlie new relations thus established by 
torce of its superior monetary resources, and by a pressure on 
canals and railways, carried to the last degree of stringency, nay 
even to theft,^ in pursuance of purely local interests, and in 
disregard of the only patriotic idea, viz. an equally developed 
and perfectly harmonized Union ; and if New Orleans, by strain- 
ing her utmost means, can with ditheulty and but partially 
recover lost ground, witli how much greater difficulty, or where- 

' Krie Eailwav. 



cii. xxviii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 2)1 

withal, shall she be able to take her proper share of the new 
sources of wealth and commerce alwa}-s being developed ? The 
prosperity of New (Orleans, so far, consists in the handling of the 
raw products, commanding world-wide markets, of extended and 
fertile regions of which she is the natural and unavoidable em- 
porium ; and, more than likely, it is only because the great 
demand for cotton is outside the United States, where the com- 
mercial interests are rich and strong enough to operate, without 
any roundabout, in all the chief centres of supply, that the 
Crescent City has been so rapidly reinstated in tliis branch of 
commerce. Wherever the Northern cities successfully took up 
the trade of New Orleans during the war, they have continued 
more or less to prevail; and from the start thus made are the 
better able, with their conserved capital and profits, to make fresh 
incursions and conquests even now when New Orleans is again 
free and at work, but with greatly dilapidated resources. The 
magnitude of business here is seen only in the export of domestic 
products : in the import of foreign commodities, whether for 
domestic consumption or for re-export, as Avell as in all branches 
of manufacture, or partial manufactiu'C, for which New Orleans 
has any peculiar advantage, it dwindles into marked disproportion. 
The value of domestic products exported from New Orleans to 
foreign countries last fiscal year was 107,058,042 dollars ; but 
the value of merchandise imported from foreign countries was 
only 14,992,754 dollars. The duties collected on foreign mer- 
chandise in the same year amounted to 5,441,825 dollars, con- 
siderably more than a third of the value of the goods, showing 
the severity with which the tariff of the United States represses 
all reciprocal exchange. The great bulk of the Customs duties 
of the United States is collected in the modest building in 
Wall Street of New York. The imposing Maine granite Custom 
House of New Orleans must have been designed when different 
ideas and interests prevailed, and when New Orleans was botli 
presently and prospectively one of the chief sources of this 
branch of revenue, which, no doubt, under a wise polity, she 
might still become. As it is, New Orleans cannot be supposed 
to supply direct the extensive countries from which she draws 
her immense quantities of cotton, sugar and molasses, hides, and 
other raw ])roducts, with more than a tithe of the foreign mer- 
chandise they consum.e, of Avhich she is the ])roper and most 
economical port of entry. A considerable proportion of her 
limited imports consists of commodities which must be almost 
reckoned exceptional. Looking over a list, in the office of the 
British Consul, of vessels entered, about one in every four or 
five was a vessel from Cardiff or some other port in Wales with 
English rails, rendered necessary by the great pressure of railway 
projects ; and a still laigcr proportion in ballast. Steamers and 



202 NEW ORLEANS. [cn. xxviii. 

sailing ships, after tliscl)arging tlieir foreign cargoes in New 
York, come round liere for cotton in ballast — an incumbrance 
which, in some ])hases of the market, migiit present itself to 
American ])rotectionists as a little spoiling of the Egj})tians in 
]jancashire, but which in the meantime can only be an aggra- 
vation of the withering effects of jjresent prices on the Southern 
planters and negroes. The foreign commodities re-exported 
from New Orleans, amounting in LSGD-TO to only 446,418 dollars 
value, exhibit as strongly as anything else at once the maimed 
condition of trade and the great oj)portunities whicii under better 
aus])ices might present themselves. 'i'he immediate proximity 
of this Southern port to Cuba, Mexico, and Brazil gives it 
peculiar facilities for an intermediary traffic betwixt these coun- 
tries and Europe ; while of their staples — sugar, coffee, and 
other produce — it is the pre-eminently (juiiliiicd entrepot for all 
the southern and western regions of the United States. Yet in 
this lucrative field New Orleans has lost ground. In the ten 
years before the war she imported 3,293,881 bags of coffee — a 
full third of all the coffee imported into the United States ; 
■whereas in the four years after the war she imported only 
444,115 bags, or less than one-tenth of the total iniport of coffee 
into the Union. While of the su.i;ar of Cuba alone New York 
imported last year 21!>,713 tons, New Orleans appears to have 
taken of Cuban sugar and molasses only 58,195 boxes, barrels, 
and hogsheads, and from other places than Cuba her imports of 
sugar and molasses were insignificant. Beyond the native pro- 
duct of Louisiana, New Orleans supplies or refines little sugar 
for any ])art of the country. The immense trade in foreign 
sugar and molasses in the United States — about six or seven 
times more than the home product — has gone round to New 
Y^ork, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and other north-eastern 
ports. The volume of New Orleans trade with the interior, 
north and up-river to the west, is no doubt, apart from foreign 
commodities, immense. Yet even here the weak side of the 
Crescent C'ity ap])ears ; for in all the return trafhc of dry goods, 
luirdware, boots, and other articles of consumption, the merchants 
of St. Louis and Louisville, strong in purse and enterprise from 
the safety whicli covered them during the war, are making tlieir 
hand largely felt, ])Utting steamboats of their own on the Missis- 
sippi, and not oidy ])assing over Memphis and trading up the 
Arkansas and lied llivers, but shooting over the head of New 
Orleans itself hundreds of miles into Texas, and selling to the 
furthest south-western limits of the Union not only American 
manufactures, but foreign goods im])orted at New York, and 
thence passed with cumulating profits through many hands, 
which could be quite as conveniently laid down on the levees of" 
the I\Iississij)pi as on the shores of the Hudson, and hence dis- 



cii. XXVIII.] \ STATE OF LOUISIANA. • 203 

tributcd to the consumers witli inucli less cost and trouble. 
Tlicre does n ,)t ap])ear to be any want of perception of this, or 
of the necessary energy and determination to correct it, among 
the merchants and business people of New Orleans. It is to be 
ascribed mainly to the laming effects of the war upon this as 
upon other Southern seaports, and to a South-destroying system 
of import duties ; and the tendency, however slow, must be lew- 
it to pass away. 'J'he natural laws of trade, superior to tenijjorary 
misfortune and even to iiseal impolicy, will in course of time 
assert their power ; the products of human industry will find 
their best channc'S of inlet and outlet; and while "this happy 
consummation ma}' be brought about more raj)i(lly by wise and 
impartial Icgislarion m tlici United States, it cannot fail to receive 
an impulse also from 'the general attention and observation of the 
mercantile world. 



/ 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

/ 

Grievances. — Review of the Tariff — its baneful Effects on the Producing 
Classes. — Deficiency of Mercantile and Banking C;j«pital. — The " National 
Banks." — Severity of Taxation. — Importance of ,a Revision of the Fiscal 
System of the United States. , 

[New Orleans. — Jan. 25 to FeJ^ 14.] 

There are various grievances, affecting deeply the commercial 
prosperity of th.e Soutliern States, and ^brought into striking 
prominence in New Orleans, which it maW" be well, before going 
out into the country among the sugar plantations, to refer to as 
concisely as so extensive a subject adm|,ts. Remarks on this 
head may be conveniently arranged undej- Tariff, Deficiency- of 
Capital, and Excessive Taxation with Mi, .'government, an " ill- 
matched pair " of which the evils are noipome and prolific. 

The Tariff of the United States, ab/jays more or less pro- 
tectionist, has, under the financial exigencies entailed by the war, 
attained a prohibitory and vexatious rigour which is without 
parallel, and gives the United States the curious distinction of 
being — China or Japan scarce excepted — ihe most anti-com- 
mercial country in tlie world. It is strange that a great people, 
falling heir from its British stock " to all the ages " — carrying 
forward year by year its great destiny by large accessions of 
European capital and labour, and called as it were by Providence 
to solve on a new and splendid field many knotty problems of 
human government and polity — should put forth in its Acts of 
Congress this intense hostility to commerce, which is not only 
its own soul and vital spark, in the most natural sense, but 
among material forces operating on the progress of humanity is 
now generally recognised as the most pervading, transforming, 
and benignly moral and social of all. There was a period in 
the history of the American Republic — when its foot was 
newly on the ice — when its " Declaration of Independence " 
sounded almost in its own ears as a kind of treason, and when 
the resolution to live within itself^ to cover the workmen and 
manufacturers who came through much difficulty to its shores 
with all manner of protection, was not unjustified in reason, and 
was fortified by precedent in practice ; but now, when it is 



cii. XXIX.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 205 

great ; when it has not even a supposed enemy in thft world ; 
when the inventions in arts and mechanism, the science and 
literature, and the surplus capital and labour of Europe are at its 
command ; wlien the Atlantic itself has been bridged by the 
ocean ships of the " foreigner," skilled and ingenious artisans 
abound in its territories, and great cities and rural farms have 
grown up over the vast continent to vie with those of any part 
of the world, this tariff-enmity to reciprocity of trade — this 
narrow, exclusive, and self-degrading war of the American 
Republic against foreign commodities, seems, in the light of 
economical science shining so brightly everywhere else, to 
obscure and dwarf its otherwise resplendent greatness. It is 
impossible, in the nature of things, that such rooted infidelity to 
one of the first principles of modern progress should not inflict 
its own punishment ; and the result is seen in the gradual 
withering of all commercial enterprises in the United States save 
that of spreading European immigrants over vast spaces of 
wilderness, where hopes of distant independence are, alas ! too 
often buried under a load of social discomforts and infinite per- 
sonal regrets. The question of free trade is here, as all the 
world over, the interest of the consumer, who is everybody, 
against the interest of knots and " rings " of monopolists who, 
despite their questionable gains and law-made importance, 
are in reality nobody. But Congress, in its Tariff Acts, has, 
with considerable ingenuity, supported the notion that its fiscal 
intentions cover a really substantial groundwork of American 
prosperity. 

The Tariff of the United States is arranged alphabetically, and 
is nearly as large as a Johnson's or a Walker's Dictionary. 
Commencing with A and the " Acetates," one finds that tlie 
United States have a solid antipathy to chemicals, weighing 
from 20 to 150 cents per lb., and extending, on turning over the 
pages, to Z and the " Valerianate of Zinc " which is strange 
enough, considering the great need in this country, in all its 
nascent manufactures, for the elaborate scientific products of older 
and wealthier lands ; but what is almost as strange, tiiere is one 
exception to this universal proscription of chemicals, and '-arsenic" 
— arsenic of all things- — is declared free, surely an ominous 
exemption, and typical, Avere one to go no further, of the 
poisonous and suicidal properties of the whole document Yet 
there is one feature of the Tariff which cannot but strike any 
student who looks into it — a feature, however, not peculiar to 
the South, but equally marked in the West, and indeed over 
nine-tenths of the whole American soil — and that is, that, with a 
single exception to be mentioned presently, there is no interest 
of any account in the South which enjoys its so-called protection, 
while it robs and maims all interests in the South, giving every 



206 Krir OJiLEJXS. [cH.xxix. 

L-^outliern man a direct blow in tlic face under the several letters 
of the alphabet, and tailing in its totality from A to Z like a 
sledge-hammer on the whole Southern region, with a cruelty of 
oppression enough to " raise the stones to mutiny " among any 
people loss loyally American than the Southern ]>eople appear to 
have aways been. The same unjust and one-sided legislation 
tried, say on Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, would in twenty- 
four hours convert these hives of Northern patriots into nests of 
rebels, ready to break up the Union and the Universe rather 
than submit. It was only lately that cotton was exempted from 
an interual tax of three cents per lb., without precedent even 
in the United States, and inilicted at a crisis Avhen the planta- 
tions were in a state of desolation, without fences or stock, and 
when the planters, rich and poor, were harried and impoverished 
by the war. But taking the Tariff as it stands now in all its 
relations to the South, what does it show? A closely manipu- 
lated system of Custom duties, repressing trade and industry 
and the development of capital — the sources of all revenue — over 
the entire South and West, in order that *' rings " of peo]>le 
in the Northern towns, inflated by indefinite ideas of American 
fertility, may extort from the industry of the fields a thousand- 
fold more than passes into the Federal treasury. Second letter 
of the alphabet, for example, boots and shoes, the last things 
which makers think of ex])orting anywhere, 35 per cent, of duty. 
Leather, for the protection of Avhich there is no excuse — the 
United States having more than enough of the best hides and 
skins in the world, with hundreds of thousands of acres of oak 
woods, which rise and fall without being of use to their owners 
— 35 per cent. On blankets there is not only the usual 85 
per cent, ad valorem, but from 20 to 50 cents per lb. in 
addition, for which monstrous aggravation there is no dis- 
coverable reason. The wool and goat- hair business, raw and 
nianufactured, in the United States has fallen into deep per- 
plexity from sheer excess of protectionist stupefaction ; for the 
wool-growers, seeing that the woollen manufacturers were so 
profusely protected, petitioned to have a share of the plunder, 
and were at once gratified with duties on foreign wool of 11 per 
cent, ad valorem, and 10 cents per lb. in access, with special 
provisions that wool of sheep, alpaca, or any other like animal, 
when mixed with " dirt or any other foreign substance," — all dirt 
of any kind being legislatively pronounced ''foreign," — be sub- 
jected to twice the amount of duty otherwise exigible. It does 
not seem to occur to the legislative wisdom of this llepublic tiiat 
when " dirt," foreign or domestic, is mixed with any commodity, 
the dealers on the spot are infinitely surer detectors and puTiishers 
of the same than any number of Solons, with probably little 
commercial experience, can pretend by any general enactment to 



cii. xxix.J STATE OF LOUISIJNJ. 207 

be. Tlic result of the douLlc attempt to protect the wool- 
growers and the woollen manufacturers has been to reduce both 
to discomfort, for the wools of Buenos Ayres, Australia, and 
New Zealand being placed under embargo and forced to seek a 
more free and open market, foreign woollens are cheaper than 
ever, the woollen manufacturers are in a state oi distraction, 
and the wool-growers do not find even so good a market as they 
had before.^ Passing from B and blankets to C and cottons, 
one is thrown into a thicket of details hard to understand. 
Cotton wool itself, to begin with, is declared "free," for whicii 
the poor ryots of India and fellahs of Egypt are doubtless thank- 
ful. But on cottons, when unbleached, with large exceptions 
there are five cents per yard, when bleached with ditto five-and- 
a-half cents, and when coloured or printed, with ditto again, five- 
and-a-half cents, and 10 per cent, ad valorem thrown in as a 
crusher ; and so this Holy Inquisition against the freedom of 
commercial exchange goes, every new turn of the screw racking 
the joints of South and West to the very marrow, till at length 
at 1^ cents per yard, and 30 cents per lb., and 20 to 35 cents ad 
valorem, the poor, hateful, and worthless thing called "cotton 
trade " may be supposed to die, or to fly to other realms where, 
if it do not happen to receive more friendly treatment, one-half of 
the United States to-morrow may not be worth the price of an old 
song. After this, D and " Dowlas," E and " Essences," F and 
" Feather Beds," G and " Glass Bottles," 11 and " Hats," I and 
"Inkstands," &o. &c., are an utter weariness of the flesh. But, 
to be short, and passing over the duties on iron manufactures, 
which no iron manufacturer probably in the world would trouble 
his head in attempting to follow, suffice to say that all linen, 
muslin, pajier, shawl, silk, and woollen goods are under import 
duties in the United States of from 35 to 100 or more per cent. 
That European manufacturers should dream of studying the 
needs, tastes, and fashions of a market so barred against them is 
one of the passing popular delusions which help to countenance 
and support all the monstrous enactments of the tariff". The 
matchless fabrics of Glasgow, Belfast, and Bradford, and the 
silks and broadcloths of England and France, are seen in some 
of the great warehouses here, but save at second-hand and 
in clothes actually made in London, Paris, and New York, they 
make but a small figure in the vast trade of the place. It is one 
of the incidents of high Customs duties that they not only dis- 
courage all enterprise and ingenuity on the [)art of the foreign 
produ(;er as regards any special market, but burden the foreign 
product itself in the first exchange with double the amount of the 

^ See Fourth Report of Mr, Wells, late United States Coinniissioiier on 
Keveniie, 



2i"»8 NEW on LEANS. [en. xxix. 

impost. T liavc it on good autlioritj that dry goods, not much 
proscribed beyond tiie "constitutional" 35 per cent.- duty, are 
.seldom cleared at New Orleans under 70 to 80 per cent, duty and 
charges. Then, there are the profits of" jobbers and retailers 
before the goods get to the consumers, which are not only rated, 
of course, on the duty and charges paid as well as the value, but 
are often carried much beyond any fair or reasonable line. The 
Federal law having set the example of proscribing foreign goods, 
and rendering them as didicult to get as possible, the retailers, 
when they have them in their fetores, are tempted to do like- 
wise, to fondle them as precious rarities, and make a great thing 
out of them. The foreign liquor trade, which 1 mention because 
it is sn])posed to be overdone, is an example of the enormous cost 
thus heajied on the consumer — the price per bottle being usually 
about what a gallon might be sold for, duty paid, with fair profit 
to all parties — to the end only of stimulating the worst practices 
of domestic distillers and " rectifiers," whose frauds and trickeries 
give the Inland llevenue department and Congress a world 
of trouble, without any correction of the pitiable evils, personal 
and social, arising from a ])rofusc distribution of the most dele- 
terious drugs. The robbery of consumers in mere dollars under 
this system, extended alphabetically through the wliohi sphere 
of commerce, is manifest though incalculable. Foreign goods 
cannot be excluded in this quick and lively community of Saxon- 
Celtic people, and if they could be more effectually excluded than 
they are, the interiuil evils would only be so mucli the greater. 
The earthenware of Britain and France is imported direct into 
>>^ew Orleans and other Southern sea])orts, though subject to 
duties, from "brown and common" to "white and cream-coloured," 
of from 25 to 40 per cent. European fabrics and tissues of cloth- 
ing and dress find a market whatever their price may be. But 
while the trade of the South in foreign goods is reduced 
to the veriest minimum, the robbery does not end with the 
actual consumption of these forbidden wares, but is carried 
on through every article of domestic manufacture which any 
one here, however rich or poor, may need, from an anchor to a 
needle, from a plough to a paletot ; and the people who have 
to sell their products abroad become the down-trodden thralls 
and slaves of those who sell theirs at home. All owners and 
cultivators of the soil, all who hope to live by their own 
fair means and industry in these Southern parts, are literally 
mobbed by Tariff Acts of Congress, knocked down in every 
purchase they make by Federal "knuckle-dusters," fleeced 
when down of eveVy cent in their pockets, and when sprawling 
up again are told to " G' long for rebels, or it will be 
much worse for them ! " People in Europe, when they 
consider all this, will begin to perceive how it is that 



CH. XXIX.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 209 

the present prices of cotton, wbicli seem to them so handsome, are 
licre simply ruinous, and tliat to grow wheat, cotton, tobacco, 
ramie, or any other vegetable thing conceivable for export on 
this virgin and sun-brightened soil of America, witli any ])rofit or 
satisfaction to the grower, is becoming a most doubtful issue. 
As for New Orleans itself, the operation of the Tariff can only be . 
likened to a stroke of paralysis, smiting down through the whole 
half of the organic frame from the brain to the big-toe, and leaving 
both sides, whole and smitten, in an abnost indistinguishable 
state of i)eculiar disal)ility. J low the great town wags on in this 
])aralysis, sunning itself all the while under the bright Louisianian 
skies, with no end of cotton and molasses, is quite wonderful to 
any observer of nature. J>ut there is one interest in the South 
as ah-eady hinted, which enjoys a full breeze of Tariff Pro- 
tection. The sugar of Louisiana has an advantage of two to four 
cents per lb. over all Cuban and other foreign raw sugars; but 
as if to poitit conclusively the argument of "Free-trade versvs 
Protection " in the United vStates, the sugar-growing interest in 
Louisiana is the only interest in the South tliat has made little 
or no headway since the close of the war, and would seem now, 
like other much more heavily " protected interests," to require 
almost boundless public largess to keep afloat in this chart- 
less sea. The United States have had, since the war, to levy 
annually immense sums of money, but it is bad policy in the 
name of public revenue to extirpate root and branch the sources 
of private revenue, and, a large Customs revenue being indispen- 
sable, the only just and wise course is to select a few general 
branches of indirect taxation falling equally on all ])arts of the 
community, without affording any section of the country or clas.s 
of citizens an opportunity of plundering the rest, as under the 
progress of economic knowledge has lieen and is being done 
in other parts of the world. (Ireat Britain, while purging her 
tariff of the last dregs of monopoly and protection, has never seen 
her Customs revenue declining, but, on the contrary, flourishing 
more and more every year. 

The deficiency of capital in New Orleans for the commercial 
demands and resources of the port can only be referred to with 
a certain reserve ; and it must be remarked, both in justice to 
the relative merits of the case and in legitimate reduction of a 
too inflated idea abroad as to what Northern capital and enter- 
prise may now be expected to do in the South, that deficiency of 
capital is written over all parts of the Union as well as the 
South, and that, save in some few localities where a long 
course of almost fanatical Protectionist policy has developed 
an outlay of hard money and entailed a perennial public 
sacrifice disproportioned to their natural value, there ia 
scarcely any section of this immense continent in which 

r 



210 I^'EJF ORLEANS. [en. xxix. 

land, labour, and productive resource are not greatly in excess of 
the capital necessary to employ and cidtivate them. There has 
never been any great country so hostile in its commercial 
legislation to other countries, while so dependent on other 
countries for its most essential means of progress, as the United 
States. But in the South, so lately desolated by war, the 
dciiciency of capital is more marked than elsewhere. The 
British and other European houses that deal in exchange, bring 
great resources to bear on moving the cotton crop. The effective 
purchasing power at the other end overcomes all obstacles to its 
purpose. Yet it is observable that from September to January, 
when this movement is at its height, the pressure for funds is 
usually severe, and in the course of tlie present season, aggravated 
somewhat probably by the war in Europe, as much as tAvo per 
cent, per month has been paid on good mercantile paper. It 
appears from an official Bank statement just published that there 
are eleven banking companies in operation in New Orleans, of 
which the total paid-up capital is 7,497,182 dollars, or about a 
million and a half sterling; and the total deposits 15,039,499 
dollars, or three millions sterling. The banks of New Orleans 
are constituted on ditferent foundation.s, some, like the Citizen.s' 
and Canal Banks, being of old corporate standing, and others 
being of more recent formation under the '"free banking law," or 
as "national banks " under the Federal banking polity since the 
war. But their mode of business is much the same. Save some 
small portions of old outlying notes, amounting in all to little 
more than 200,000 dollars, they have no "circulation" of their 
own, and use wholly greenback or national currency, which has 
come, from its uniformity and stability, and in contrast with the 
multiform and sometimes worthless currencies of past times, to 
enjoy great public confidence and to be much liked, so that it 
may really be regarded as a particular advantage accruing to the 
United States from a great national debt. The banks in New 
Orleans all observe the rule of retaining a reserve in " S])ecie and 
current funds," equal at lowest to one-third of their liabilities. 
Thus, while the total " movement " liabilities shown in this 
statement are 17,598,035 dollars, the "specie and current funds " 
in hand are 0,807,978 ; but, if the capital of the banks were 
added to the liabilities, the reserve would be as 7 to 24. The 
total liabilities, exclusive of capital, are 17,597,935 dollars, and 
the total assets 20,944,732 dollars, giving, with the ca])ital of 
7,497,182 superadded to the liabilities, a clear surplus of 
1,849,015 dollars. But this surplus is very unequally dis- 
tributed. The old institutions represented by the Citizens' and 
the Canal Banks have 815,523 dollars of it, the remaining 
million being divided among the other nine — the Bank of 
America, which enjoys the largest run of business and popu-. 



cii. XXIX.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 211 

laritj, and pays the largest dividends, sailing closer to the wind 
apparently than any of tlicm, its total liabilities with capital 
being 4,()55,8r>7 dollars, and its total assets 4,0GG,G17 dollars. 
There is no interest paid on deposits, and until banking 
institutions and society in all its parts attain a more firm 
consolidation, this stimulus to the economisation of monetary, 
resources by the general community, urban and rural, in the 
United States is only tentatively practicable. But it appears in 
the aggregate that a banking company in New Orleans can 
always calculate on deposits without interest equal to double the 
amount of its capital. Banking is consequently very profitable, 
without having more than, or probably even as much as the 
ordinary risks of banking transactions in other parts of the 
world. The Citizens' Bank divides 16 per cent, the Bank of 
New Orleans 15, the Southern Bank U, the Bank of America 30 
per cent, per annum. The Bank of Ameiica, with a capita! of 
half a million some odd dollars, has three millions and a half of 
deposits without interest, which are the source of its extraordinary 
profits. The Germania " National " Bank, the most prosperous 
of that class, divides 20 per cent, per annum. " National " banks, 
based on a .small capital, are increasing in New Orleans ; but 
though enjoying much privilege in the legalised deposit of 
Federal bonds for currency, with running interest to the bank 
from the bond.s, and capable of very profitable management, are 
yet, as the creations of public privilege, so subject to the political 
discussions and dissensions of the liepublic, to constant change of 
conditions by Congress or by the Secretary of the Treasury 
alone, and to sweeping Federal control, that they cannot be said 
to be anywise popular among men of business. One of the 
first of the " national " banks instituted in Louisiana, having 
fallen under mismanagement, was seized by the Federal authority 
for some security of its own and forcibly wound up, with great 
loss to the creditors, under a state of the bank's affairs which is 
declared to have shown assets sufiScient for all its liabilities. 
This event has tended to swell the deeper currents of objection to 
" national " banks, and it is more than doubtful whether any 
companies under this form of constitution can overtake the vacant 
ground in any great place like New Orleans. 

The halcyon days of light taxation have gone from this 
country, possibly not soon to return. Taxation in the United States 
is now, after the great war, necessarily heavy, while unnecessarily 
excruciating. Here in New Orleans, where tariff legislation 
represses every mercantile faculty, and prevents capital, so 
deficient, from multiplying, one feels this deeply. Against 
the Federal revenue there is no use to protest, save in the one 
cardinal point of how most lightly and equally to raise it — a 
branch of study heretofore happily not needing in the United 

1' 2 



212 A7',7/' ()ni.h:.4NS. |cii. win. 

Stiilrs lo !)(' innc.li shidicd -\)ut licliiiid I<\'(li',r!il rovcniie tlicMO uni 
State, ivvcniic and (jily vcvcnuo, Al|) on Alp, with conlidciicc in 
tlic taxiiii;" power of Slale and (^ity Hinkinji,' almost to zero. State 
and City InNes in the Soiilli liav(! been nioiintini!; up, sinee the 
Will", lo an alliliide only nliort of that of the {•'ederal taxes, with 
liltle or no power on tlie part of Ihe ta\i)ayers to help tluMnsclves 
and with loud eoinphunls of Htealiupj au(l corruption that arc in 
the main wludesome, since Ihcy show that tlio, spirit of liberty 
iind seir-i:;overnment are by no means dead in this country. 
The total inllielion is without doubt very seviMC. 'i'akc n nier- 
ehant or nianul'aelurer in New Orle.-ins, wilh a. capital (say) of 
I (),0()() dollars, a hous'\ worlli (i.OOO, and furniture worth 2,()()() 
<lolI}>rs. In th(\ tirsi ])laee he pays a licence duty to the State, 
l'(ir tlu" mere lilicrty lo pursue his avocation, of 1(10 dollars; and 
anotluM- licence duly to the (3ity, varyiui;- somewhat, but still to 
liii'n 100 dollars. If sidlinj;- spirilncuis liquors be ;niy part of hi?J 
luisiness, he must pay another 100 dollars of licence duty to the 
b'e(U«ral ( Jovernuu'ut, and if he be one who ])rofesses to bo a 
** rectilier," very few can have any bowels left for hiu> at this 
])oiut of tlui screw. Hut he ]iays, besides, direct taxes on his 
capital in business, on ihe value of his house, and on his furnitiu'e 
and personal cHeets of every kind, mi mis HOO dollars — In all to 
the amount of d[;])crcent. At llu> same rate he is taxed o!i 
nu>ney outside his business, if he have any, at interest, or in shipii 
<H- sailinij^ craft, or railway and other slocks. When all his 
means ;»nd substance haV(> thus hceu l,\xed, a demand is made 
upon him for 2.^ per cent, to the I'niled Stntes on his ineomo 
from all somres, ami he nnist thus part with a portion of his 
stock and of its annual juoduee at tiie sanu\ tinu\ riun'c are also 
stamp duties on bills and ])romissory notes of f) ciMits per TOO 
dollars, on cheipu's 'J cents each irresj)eetive of amomit, and on 
deeds and instruments of every kind. His eonsumjjtiou of 
dutiable jj^ooda also pours heavy sums every liour of the day into 
the various treasuries. Assuming' his ]iroilta of trade to be (i,000 
dollars, whiirh is sujiposing him to be very prosperous, he will 
havi> paid dinMn.i; the year in direct taxes alone at least 1, ')()() 
dollars if he make an honest return. If he is not so ]irosperous, 
if his profits be little or nothiuji^ at all, his ca])ital will have been 
shorn and cut down by the inc>xorable shears of taxation on means 
and substance. Any rapid inereaae of capital amonu; the citizena 
of New Orleans is thus unpromisino; ; for many of the most tbrtu- 
luite are glad to remove as soon as possible to some dinu^ where 
they will lun the risk of being taxed to death ui^ more. There is a 
])raclice in the United States of assessing real (^stalc on its capi- 
tal value instead of its annual rental, which hasstMue md'avourablo 
conse(pUMu*es, discouraging extensions and imj)rovemcnts of house 
pro[)erty, and keeping many of the streets where a large traiiic 



(MI. XXIX. I STJTI': OF LOUISIANA. ±V.\ 

in carried on In an incunvcnicnl, and Hcnii-dilupidalcd (-oiidilion. 
()wiici-8 ol" lioiiHc, nrojjcil-y arc more avcr.sc to enter into the iin- 
provenients needed by tlic oeciipierH wliiin their {iHHC.sHincnt on 
capital is sure to 1j(! inereaHcd pro rata, hy the whoh; C(JHt of the 
iinprovciinint than tliey vvouhl he were taxation (;on{in(!d to the 
increased rental, and shared witii them e(|nally by the occupier.-*. 
The re.sult is thai the owners are apt to slijmhite for an increase 
of rent so disproportioncd to the capital outlay as to ntagger tiie 
occuj)ierH, and prevent the desired ojicrations. 

The facts 1 have stated ai'o enough to show tliat Taxation, 
without dwelling on the Mis^'overninent which is declared by so 
many witnesses t(; be its oidy return, is indeed severe and e.x- 
jiaustin^, and that the whole fiscal polity of the Uiiited Stales 
will have to be carefully revised and adjusted ii" JS'ew (Jrleans ia 
to rise to the level of lier great coniniercial position, if her cap- 
tivity is to pass away "like streains of water in the South," and, 
going- Ibri.h with jircciouH seed, she is to return with sheaves ia 
iiarvest joy uiid gladncHS. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Trip in the Bradish Johnson dovra Eiver. — The Sugar Plantations. — River 
Traffic. — Passengers. — The Scenery. 

[New Orleans. — Jan. 25 to Fch. 14.] 

The Bradish Johnson, though only a plantation boat, and in 
dimension much inferior to the floating palaces on the up-river 
navigation of the Mississippi, is yet a gem of its kind, and, 
while swallowing barrels of sugar and molasses with wondrous 
capacity on her flat lower deck two or three feet above water, 
opens on her second story in such a creamy brightness and 
gilded luxury of saloon, boudoir, and sleeping chambers as 
might befit a king and queen of the East with their brilliant 
train of courtiers. The barge of Cleopatra, save in a few mere 
poetical embellishments of Shakespeare, was not more gay, more 
soft and silken, or more burnished in its equipments, than the 
middle region of the river .steamers on the Mississippi. The upper 
story, seldom visited, is not so agreeable ; but the genius of the 
American shipbuilders has here devised a watch-tower for the 
steersman, and an ornamental cupola with azure roof and golden 
minarets, bright as the colours of the Southern sky, and giving 
to a white exterior without line of beauty an aspect of stately 
grandeur, as if there were a Nabob somewhere in the interior of 
the curious three-decker. For a combination of rough, raw, ready 
• trafiic, with pleasure and luxury of accommodation to passengers, 
no structures have been put on the waters to compare with the 
Mississippi steamers. But for an unhappy tendency to take fire 
or to burst their boilers, which can only be the result of careless- 
ness, they would be perfect.^ The Bradish Johnson is an 
instance here, simply because it was in that steamer, at the 
courteous invitation of Mr. Bradish Johnson, her owner — a 
gentleman known alike in New Orleans and New York as a 
great sugar-planter and merchant in one — that I passed down 
some fifty miles from the city among the sugar plantations ; and 

1 Six or seven Mississippi steamers, within about as many weeks, have 
come to a bad end this winter. 



CH. XXX.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 215 

tliougli the circumstance, I fear, will not give her any immor- 
tality yet in passing one must touch, however lightly, on what 
one sees. 

The sun was shimmering warmly over the levees and waters 
of the ]\Iississipj3i, with the buildings on either side, at noon. 
All in the distance was so low that the funnels of the steamers 
looked even taller than they were, and a sensation of being too 
near the furnaces stole over one in an atmosphere quivering with 
heat. It was only when the Bradish Johnson pulled in her 
ropes, and her paddle-wh icls began to revolve, that one wakened 
up to the delights of saiung on tiie Mississippi in periods of the 
year when the s;ni must be much more fierce. The vast body of 
cool deep water, and the great fan of air produced by a movement 
of ten miles an hour, cannot fail to render the famous second 
story of the steamers the most pleasant of retreats in mid- 
summer. The scenery, indeed, is not very captivating, because 
it is so monotonous. But the Bradish Johnson has no sooner 
got under way, now in the current and now among the drift- 
wood, than she begins to row, in fine commercial cadence, betwixt 
great ferry-boats as big as herself, from one side of the river to 
the other — -taking in a drove of lean Texan cattle on this, and 
giving out barrels of flour and sundry parcels on that, and 
sweeping bravely on, though making little progress as one 
thinks, through the great bends of the river. Large ships v/ere 
moored to both banks ; a revenue-cutter or two were in the 
stream ; and a couple of Monitors, their brown n'on decks lying as 
squat on the water, and much the same in shape, as the backs of 
a couple of soles, with a round-house only above the waA^e, where 
the guns are, and the crew conceal themselves, with under-water 
passage to works below, giving, very likely, hidden powers of 
motion — most singular marine reptiles, which, since there is 
nothinp; to slioot at, must be run down and crushed with an iron 
foot if their sting is ever to be extracted. An American patriot 
points out a monument in commemoration of a great swamp 
where President Jackson, at the head of the Federal army, 
repulsed a British infantry expedition, and killed a considerable 
number of Highland soldiers marching bravely to death, at the 
word of command, without the ships that Avere an essential part 
of their line of battle, a whole month after peace had been 
happily concluded in London betwixt " father and son ; " and, 
quite close to the monument there is a vast sugar-mill, with 
thousands of acres of plantation in a state of dilapidation and 
decay. But the river environs of New Orleans have more 
agreeable objects of contemplation. The signs of manufacture 
native and proper to the city are not very marked, cotton-oil 
works being the most prominent ; but there are many fine 
residences, and a Federal barracks under trees, with groups of 



216 ^'Eir Or.LEANS. [cii. xxx. 

happy children playing on the clover lawns among sweet-scented 
shrubs, and long planked walks to the water edge, where maidens 
in white robes and fascinating curls, blonde and dark, come 
down to bid adieu to parting or welcome arriving friends. 
There was on this occasion, as usual in these river boats, a large 
number of passengers, ladies as well as gentlemen — fine old 
French seigneurs with all the polite affability of the olden time, 
with other civilized persons of probably as ancient lineage, but of 
quite a modern monetary aspect, as if bent on looking narrowly 
into the securities — and stout honest ditchers, going down among 
tlie plantations to negotiate a contract. There were also many 
negroes, or at least coloured people of various hues, the men in 
tweed trousers and jackets, and the women in modestly draped 
serge or printed calico, according to taste or age, with emblems of 
mourning not infrequent ; some of the younger and sprier fellows 
wearing pegtop pants with high-heeled boots and cane, repro- 
ducing the costume of Bond Street dandies many long years 
ago with remarkable exactness ; and, in the matter of heel, long- 
cultivated in the South, giving to the Darwinian theory a quite 
disturbing conhrmation. One old portly woman of colour, who 
had bound her head in a kercliief with hanging loops over the 
ears, and mutton-chop whiskers of natural or artificial wool 
brought down over her broad brown clieeks, and who was always 
running about, on saloon deck and lower deck, upstairs and 
downstairs, everywhere one happened to be, with something 
eatable in her hands, and munching something similar in her 
mouth with a strong and apparently unappeasable appetite — was, 
in the first place, amusing, and in the second, suspicious or even 
hateful. The first impression v.^as that this old lady must have 
some supreme connection with the cooking department, and that 
the dinners of the ship were disappearing rapidly ; and this 
impression grew in exact ratio as any one on board wished to 
have anything to eat. But it was a delusion. A very choice 
dinner was served in due time in the saloon, with a supply of 
good claret to tlie white people, while the negroes had their meal 
under an awning on the saloon deck, where they had been 
sauntering freely all day; and the old negro woman, shade of 
Barmecide, turned out to be a genial old soul who keeps a shop 
somewhere on the levees of ]Mew Orleans, and spends most of 
her time on the river, up and down, executing small commissions 
with the most trustworthy accuracy, and speaking French and 
English to the genteel families with a fluency equal to her fine 
gastronomic qualities. An intimate and cordial acquaintance- 
ship prevails all through this riverain territory ; and the banks 
of the Mississi])pi south of New Orleans — so numerous are the 
plantations, and the people on them brought into so frequent 
intercourse by the river traffic — are in reality a great rural town, 



cH. XXX.] STATE or LOUISIANA. 217 

where all classes, high and low, know one another Letter, and 
live in a more social spirit than in the streets ot" large cities. 

The Mississippi at this point is scarce lialf a mile broad, with 
a slow and placid ^ow, yet full of the latent ])Ower and majesty 
of waters that ran deep, and, as the sun falls on its surface, 
revealing rolling volumes of the most various colours, from bright 
red to brown and milky, as if all the great rivers swallowed u]) 
in this common cliainiel were being twisted, like the strands of 
a cable, into union, and yet remaining separate and intact. The 
banks are so low as to lip the edge of the stream, with a fringe 
here and there of long willow saplings ; and the horizon on either 
side is bounded by a dark grey wood, bursting at tliis period into 
streaks of green, at a distance of a mile to three-quarters of a 
mile from the latture ; the sugar-cane fields, sometimes lower 
than the river, filling up the middle space. The Mississippi, in 
.its progress, describes a series of curves round one great tongue 
of land after another, and as one looks forward athwart these 
windings, all that is of bank and forest fades down in the bright 
sunshine till it seems but mere drift-wood floating on the surface 
of the waters. But as the steamer plouglis its way round the 
curves, there is no want of life and cultivation along the margins 
of tiiis swelling channel. Every sugcir plantation is a little 
village in itself The planter's mansion — sometimes elegant, 
always comfortable, seated amidst bright orange groves and 
fields of white clover, more radiantly green in its new spring 
growth than can be described — is flanked by rows of negro frame- 
cottages, windowed and painted white, with verandahs extending 
along the whole front, while close at hand is the sugar 
factory, with its great square chimney-stalk, broad shingled roof, 
and numerous outworks. Back from the river, more than half 
way to the Avood, there is on most of the plantations a small 
building with a chimney-stalk, where a steam-pump helps the 
drainage of the fields out into the swamp. Tlie planters have 
brought down the leaves of the sugar-canes to the hatture in 
front, and behind the bank thus garnished there is usually a 
large heap of coals, transported by boats from the Ohio, and 
drayed by the mules as needed to the sugar-house. As the 
steamer presses its heavy bulk against this dry and yielding 
beach, one notes how admirably the Mississippi vessels are con- 
structed for the work they have to do. The open lower deck 
laps the water edge of the hatture, and with the help of a heavy 
plank, and sometimes without, the most easy entrance and exit 
are made for goods and passengers. On approaching, the steamer 
Avheels round, turning her prow to the stream ; backing out 
makes another semicircle, carrying her into the middle of the 
river, and nearly half-way to the landing on the other side, where, 
she goes through a similar movement : and thus, describing in 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Woodlands, Point Celeste, and Magnolia Plantations. — The Sugar Mills. — 
Sugar-refining Apparatus. — Culture of the Sugar-Canes. — Fowler's Steam 
Ploughs. — Thomson's Eoad and Field Steamer. — Large Fixed Capital of 
Sugar Estates in Louisiana. — Chinese Labour. 

[New Orleans. — Jan. 25 to Feb. 14.] 

Mr. Johnson lias two larG;e plantations — Woodlands and Point 
Celeste ; and marching with them along the river front, and 
extending round one of the river cnrvef, is Magnolia Plantation, 
the property of his neighbour, My. Lawrence. These plantations 
are among the finest sugar estates in Louisiana, and their mills 
and refineries are on a scale of the most liberal amplitude. The 
reader may please to step in for a minute or two to th.e sugar- 
liouse at Woodlands — an immense fabric covering more ground 
than most toA\n factories — a mill and refinery in one. First is 
the sugar-mill, where the canes, carted in from the fields, are 
carried by an endless rail under two ponderous rollers, seven feet 
long, probably more than half as much in diameter, and have the 
saccharine juice expressed from them ; and where the bruised 
and fibry refuse, or " baggasse," as it is called, on issuing from 
the rollers, is taken up again by the endless rail, and carried 
direct into a furnace, in which it is burned, and makes part of 
the steam-power necessary to drive the great iron wheel of the 
mill. It is worthy of note, as part of the economy of the process, 
that the " baffffasse " makes steam enough to drive the mill 
proper, and that the canes, as far as steam-power is concerned, 
really express their own juice without other fuel. On going 
down to the ashpit of the furnace, what remains of the cane 
there is as like the coke of coal as two things caii be. For the 
steam required by the refining processes, in which it is largely 
consumed, there is another furnace and set of boilers fed with 
coal. The juice as expressed by the rollers is an impure and 
turbid liquor, with much earthy and vegetable matter in it, 
needing to be quickly looked after, else the liquor will sour and 
spoil. When one cuts a sugar-cane through the middle and 
looks at the juice welling out from the interior pores and artcri<-s, 
notliing could seem more pure, more like spirit of ether itself. 



en. xxxi] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 221 

than tliis saccliarine essence ; and if it couid be sucked out as 
perfectly as it is every hour of the day in the cane-fields by the 
masterly and exquisite lips of the negroes it would crystallize 
and be the finest sugar immediately. But though great inge- 
nuity — English, French, and Spanish — has been exerted on this 
mechanical problem, and the sugar-growers are bewildered by 
new processes and new modifications of old ones, yet nothing 
equal to or resembling the mouth of a vigorous negro boy or 
girl has up to this time been invented. So, upon the juice and 
other matter crushed out by the rollers, tho clarifying process, 
repeated and developed to the last stages of refinement, has to 
begin and be carried out with an elaboration and outL'\y of capital 
to be seen in all our large refineries, and marvellous to find here 
within a few paces of the fields where the sugar-cane itself is 
gi-own. The juice passes through a series of open trays, with 
steam-pipes, copper or iron, coiled along the bottom, where 
the scum sent to the surface by the heat is taken off; then 
through bag filters and " bone-black " filters (the latter being 
large round pans filled with burnt bone-dust, through which 
the liquor percolates with excellent clarifying result); then 
through "evaporators," differing little in appearance from the 
clarifying trays, but bringing the liquor to a lower degree of 
heat; tlirough ''bone-black" again, and next into the vacuum 
pans — large tower-like vessels, in which, from the lower tem- 
perature at which the syrup granulates in vamto, the grain begins 
to be perfectly formed, and is completed either by being passed 
into long rectangular wooden troughs or " coolers," or into semi- 
cylindrical vessels of the same capacity as the vacuum pans, with 
slowly revolving paddles to keep the sugar in its half-liquid state 
until it gets to the centrifugal machines, the last touch of all — 
little round shallow vessels, cased with two or three layers of the 
finest copper wire-net that can be made, through which, by 
revolutions of 1,200 in a minute, and mere force of whirl, every 
drop of molasses or liquid still incorporated with the sugar is 
squirted out, leaving only the dry sugar of commerce, to be put 
into hogsheads, sent to market, and sold to the highest bidder. 
The sugar thus produced on Woodlands is the finest powder 
sugar of the market ; but were it put through the " centrifugals" 
again, with some water added, it would come fortli in the purest 
crystals, to be moulded into snow-white loaves if necessary. 
The molasses cast off are, by pipe and sub-floor arrangement, 
lapped up and re-boiled, and sent through the centrifugals again 
to make " seconds" and even "thirds," with molasses still over, 
which are not to be confounded by any means in the market with 
the prevailing molasses of New Orleans. Even the " bone- 
black," once used, is put through a kiln and re-burnt, and sent 
back to the filters, so that no economy appears to be overlooked. 



222 NEW ORLEANS. [ch. xxxi. 

The sugar-lionse on Magnolia differs little, save in mere detail, 
from the general process on Woodlands. The sugar-mill, instead 
of two great rollers, has three of somewhat smaller dimensions, 
giving a second squeeze to the canes, which is believed to be 
beneficial, and may as well be given as not. The whole arrange- 
ment of the factory is admirable ; and from an office upstairs in 
the centre, one looks down through the mill on the one hand, and 
the retinery on the other, with the eyes of an Argus. The reader 
has only to consider the maze of various mechanism underlying 
every square yard of every floor of the sugar-house, and extending 
outward in cisterns, boilers, and furnaces, which all this process 
involves, in order to perceive what an elaborate combination or 
complication of chemistry, manufacture, and agriculture sugar- 
making on the great scale in Louisiana must be. 

Going over the fields on Woodlands, there are large spaces of 
rich open land, ribbed with the furrg^ of last year, untilled, but 
ready, with little labour, to receive/a new course of seed-canes. 
Labour is at present at a stand. The negroes, enjoying a long 
holiday since Christmas, are chaffering with the planters, sugar 
falling, for higher terms. They had sixteen dollars a month last 
year, and rations equal to five — twenty-one dollars a month, or 
rather more than a pound sterling per week. The planters, to 
make short dispute, have offered a round dollar a day without 
rations, or twenty-six dollars, or 5/. 4s. Qd. a month ; but the 
negroes, thinking there is something in " rations," doubt whether 
last year's terms may not be better after all. The great law of 
demand and supply in the matter of labour operates here under 
curious difficulties, the supply neither knowing what it is worth 
nor what it wants, and the demand, having no other shift, forced 
to try all kinds of dodges, oftering sometimes less or more in- 
differently, in order to get the supply to begin, which is the main 
thing for both. The perplexity of this state of affairs, especially 
to men accustomed to the .system of slave labour, witli its fixed 
quantity of rations and clothing, must be taken into account in 
all questions of Southern production, with a large consideration 
in favour of employers in the South, who, under the abolition of 
an old and bad system, have yet to grope in the dark for the 
elements of a new and better without exactly finding them. 
There is no sharing of crops with the negroes on the sugar as 
on the cotton plantations, the large outlay of capital in the sugar- 
mill and refinery, and the amount of white labour necessary in 
this branch of industry, forbidding that simple but questionable 
solution of immediate difficulties. The soil on W^oodlands is 
cultivated much the same as, but with stronger mules and some- 
Avhat deeper ploughs than, in the cotton districts. The plantation, 
almost level, is intersected by waggon-roads and broad drains, 
more like canals than ditches. When the water flows down 



cn. XXXI.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 223 

through tliese channels to the Mississippi it is well ; but when 
it backs the other way there is a steam-boiler house, driving not 
so much a pump as a broad-featliered wheel or revolving fan set 
in the canal, which lifts the water five feet, and sends it out into 
the wood and swamp behind. Vast swarms of blackbirds — not 
of the singing species — cover the Indian corn patches, doing little 
harm on the sugar plantations, but very plaguy customers on the 
rice farms, to be rabbled off by a smaller swarm of negro boys, 
only a little less black and voracious than themselves ; and, on 
this occasion, a dense wing of the countless army had settled 
down on a mound covered with straw on the cane-fields, not 
far from one of various wooden sheds, where -the workers run for 
shelter in a heavy shower. In this and similar mounds the sugar 
seed-canes of the year are treasured — fine, carefully-selected, 
purply-coloured stalks, .six to eight feet long, and about as thick 
as one's wrist, with ring-joints at every six or eight inches, from 
which heart-shaped buds, two or even three round the joint, are 
springing, and clinging while they spring. The sugar-cane, as 
thus seen, is quite a picture of beauty in colour, art-symmetry, 
and modestly-budding vitality. When the drills are opened, the 
tall seed-canes are laid in twos or threes laterally along the bed 
— the great object of the sugar-planter being to bring up as many 
canes as possible ; and, on the whole, the cultivation of the 
sugar-cane is less elaborate, minute, and troublesome than that 
of the cotton-plant. Riding down one of the waggon-roads of 
Woodlands to the common way along the hatturc, there was a 
fine breeze under a cloud-tempered sun rippling the great river, 
wliich was six or eight inches higher than the day before, and as 
it laved the roots of tlie moss-draped trees on the one hand, and 
the soft air rustled the leaves of the orange-groves round the 
blacksmiths' shops and the villas and hostelries on the other — 
the said groves yielding to people in these parts, with little 
trouble beyond the original cost of planting, some thousands of 
dollars per annum — a sensation of health and pleasure vibrated 
through one's whole frame, and in its full glow I was met by the 
doctor of these plantations, who reported a fairly clean bill of 
health, but three loving wives, prominent ladies of the district, 
had died since last fall, and their decease had cast a gloom 
over the whole district. On the other side of the river a small 
town with notable buildings was visible, to Avhich people have to 
go to worship on Sundays, and to sue and be sued on other days 
of the week, crossing the Mississippi in boats — the head town of 
the " parish " ; for the Louisianians, following old tradition, call 
their counties " parishes," tlie minor divisions being mere wards 
and sub-divisions of parishes, and this trace of ancient nomen- 
clature makes one feel a little more at home. But if anything 
could recall the memory of Old England here, it ought to be 



224 NE1F ORLEANS. [en. xxxi. 

" Magnolia" plantation, spreading round a loop of the river in 
a firm, dry, and well -braced semicircle, and yet in parts divided 
into square lots as level as a bowling-green, where two sets of 
Fowler's stationary-engine steam-ploughs, costing 15,000 dollars 
each, were turning over the soil 2h, feet deep, and laying 
farrows so straight and handsome that mule and negro-ploughing 
in comparison must be pronounced the most barbarous workman- 
ship. Jn the courtyard was an enormous grubber, or cultivator, 
of the same manufacture, with prongs a yard long, and so 
adjusted as to pass down on eitlier side betwixt the sugar-canes, 
and stir up the soil round them afresh. There was also in one 
of the ditches a machine for scooping out the gathering mud and 
decaying vegetable matter without hand-labour, but from some 
defect in the motive-power, it had come into passing desuetude. 
One caimot but admire the splendid courage and enterprise ot 
bringing all these costly mechanical inventions to the hard and 
necessary work of the soil. Mr, Lawrence, in conversation, dis- 
covered a contempt for Thomson's road and field steamer, 
ploughing only eight inches deep, and sticking fast at the end 
of the furrows ; so unlike Fowler's, which works with perfect 
balance and so much deeper. Mr. Johnson, though not finan- 
cially committed to steam-ploughing, yet observant, could as little 
conceal his regret that the trial of Thomson's engine lately in 
Jersey State was a failure, and that the ploughs, inextricable at 
the ends of the field, had to work round in a circle.^ And Dr. 
Wilkinson, as old and vigilant a planter probably as either, 
observed that Thomson's steamer, were there no ploughing in 
the matter, would be worth its cost (some 5,000 dollars) on the 
sugar-])lantations for nothing more than hauling in the sugar- 
canes to the mill, which is one half the battle. These questions 
of steam-power applied to agriculture — nowhere more important 
than in the tSouthern States — must be left to experience. But, 
putting agriculture aside, too much com])licated as it is on sugar- 
estates with manufacture, what have we? Magnolia, from 600 
acres of cane, has manufactured 850 hogsheads of sugar in two 
months in its sugar-house, the cost of which latter cannot be 
estimated at less than from 200,000 to 250,000 dollars ; the 

^ It must 1)6 observed that the trial of Thomson's engine in New Jersey 
was not a trial of its adaptation to ploughing at all. Only an engine had 
been sent to New York. There was no ploughing apparatus attached to it, 
and the trial was made with a seven-gang plough, consisting of the ordinary 
ploughs of the country. For ploughing, Thomson's engine requires such a 
s[)ecial ploughing apparatus as Lord Dunmore has ajjplied in Scotland. 
Mr. Thomson's patent right in the United States has been transferred to 
Mr. Williamson of New York, who is producing a seven-gang plough that 
will lift quite easily at the end of the furrows, and cover a narrower surface 
than was possible to the improvised ploughs in New Jersey — about eight feet 
wide. 



cii. XXXI.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 225 

sugar-house on Woodlands must have cost about as mucli, and 
that on Point Celeste probably not much less ; and Mr. Johnson, 
if he has got his canes into the mills with the usual expedition, 
■will have made about 1,500 hogsheads of sugar. So that, within 
four or five miles of one another, three perfectly equipped sugar- 
mills and refineries, costing probably near a million of dollai's, 
have made some 2,300 hogsheads of sugar for the year, which 
they have done in two months, standing idle, with the necessary 
staff of skilled labour, all the other ten months of the year, and 
wearing down in idleness probably near as much as if they were 
all the while in active operation. This is the system of develop- 
ment on which sugar culture in Louisiana has hitherto proceeded. 
No other system can yet be said to have emerged under the 
assumed necessity of having the best sugar-making apparatus 
close at hand on the cane-fields, so that the canes, when ripe, 
may be treated and sugar made before they are injured by the 
first touches of frost. But it is not a desirable system. It is 
a system which betrays a great defect somewhere, whether in 
mechanical invention or in division of labour, and is burdened 
with a weight and waste of capital that must be hazardous, I 
greatly fear, to the proprietors, as well as a formidable obstacle 
to any rapid recovery and extension of sugar-cane culture in 
Louisiana. 

The scarcity of field labour appears to be a source of much 
anxiety to the sugar-planters, and hence the readiness to intro- 
duce steam-ploughs and other labour-saving machines, were their 
practical fitness assured and their cost within reasonable bounds. 
But the difficulty of engaging hands is not greater than I have 
found in many cotton districts, while the terms of remuneration 
are not so high. One planter on this Mississippi coast has entered 
into a contract with twenty-five Chinamen for three years, and 
squads of that race are found at work in various capacities in the 
neighbourhood of New Orleans. The Chinese element is just so 
extant as that a few pigtails may be seen any day in the streets 
of the city ; and efforts arp being made from time to time to 
induce a larger immigration from the " Flowery Land." 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Matters of General Interest in New Orleans. — The " Nejiro Lofjislature." — 
The Negroes and the Poll or School Tax. — More ahoiit Siiyar-growinif 
and Bu<;ar-niakinji-. — (*ost of Louisianian Sugar-malcinjf Machinery. — 
Comparison with Prices of Glasrfow Machinery for Siij^ar Plantations.— 
The " Sngar Concretor." — Probable Causes of backward state of Bugar- 
culturo in Louisiana. 

[New Orleans. — Jan. 25 to Feb. 14.] 

Tins city of the South Is l.ivj^-c and lively onougli to present the 
most varied objects of interest to a traveller. If his object be 
information, there are a hundred branches of inquiry in which 
the knowledge to be obtained is alike new and valuable ; if he 
seek amusement, he can be well amused; and if any one would 
write a history of New Orleans, social, political, and commercial, 
he must make up his mind to stay a long time, and produce a 
large volume. But almost the first question put to a stranger, 
is, whether he has seen "the Negro Legislature?" and the 
Legislative Assembly of the State, as at present constituted, 
seems to be regarded much in the light of a joke by most of the 
citizens. 

I went to see the Legislature of Louisiana. There were a few 
carriages, and some knots of people round the door of the 
Mechanics' Hall, in which the Legislative Body sits. The 
lobbies were crowded with negro men and lads " from the 
country," with a sprinkling of more Avhite and sharp-visaged 
townsmen ; and negro women were selling cakes, oranges, and 
]ollij)ops up to the door of the Chamber of llepresentatives. 
Within the Chamber itself were seated in semicircle round the 
S])eaker's ciiair, Avith little fixed desks and drawers full of papers 
before them, a body of men as sedate and civilized in appearance 
as a convention of miners' delegates in Scotland or the North of 
England. On close inspection, a few Africans were visible, but 
yellow men seemed to predominate. The Senate differed little 
in general aspect or composition, but was presided over by 
Lieutenant-Governor Dunn, a really black man as far as could 
be seen in the shadow, and was being addressed by an honour- 
able white Senator of an intellectual cast of head and face, who 
appears to have gained more notoriety than all the rest by 
marrying a black woman. There is no supreme - law of taste, 



CH. XXXII.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 221 

and negro suffrage and love together combine to produce occa- 
sional startling effects, ]5ut having seen a few coloured men 
sitting among a great majority of whites in the House of Eepre- 
sentatives, and two gentlemen of decided African blood in the 
Senate of Virginia, with no want of cordiality and honest political 
intent, I am not disposed to attach radical im})ortance to the, 
" incompatibilities of colour " in legislation, albeit the spectacle 
of a majority of coloured and negro-worshipping and negro- 
marrying legislators in Louisiana and South Carolina be matter 
of passing amazement and regret. It is strange, abnormal, and ^ 
unfit that a Negro Legislature should deal, as the Legislature of 
Louisiana has been dealing, with the gravest commercial and 
financial interests, dispensing not only the State taxes and 
patronage, but the levees of the Mississippi, and the sugar sheds, 
warehousing, and cattle marketing of New Orleans to private 
companies, with unlimited powers of com.pulsion and taxation 
over the community of merchants, planters, and white people of 
business and industry, who, though a numerical majority of the 
population, have as little power in the government as if they 
were inhabitants of another sphere, and are forced to speak 
of it only as a grim jest, or as a playful though melancholy jibe. 
This state of tilings is not any advancement of the negro, it is 
only his exaltation, through the exigencies of Federal politics 
since the war, into a delirium of fully and corruption, which, 
imder the action of parties at Washington, will assuredly, soon 
or late, be reduced by two inevitable amendments, nowise incon- 
sistent in principle with the "fifteenth," viz. the restoration of 
])roscribed people in the South to their equal rights under the 
Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, and the 
limitation of the suffrage to citizens, white and black, who have 
a local habitation and pay their taxes. It is not so much 
universal suffrage that misgoverns the United States as a loose 
misconception and strong-handed abuse, wherever practicable, 
of what universal suffrage, even on the broadest theory of repre- 
sentative democracy, really is. The poll-tax — the only tax 
levied on the negro masses — seems still worse paid in Louisiana 
than in other Southern States. " At present," says Mr. Graham, 
the Auditor, in his report for the session of 1871, " it is paid by 
a comparatively small number of those who are subject to no 
other State tax. Except in comparatively rare cases, it is paid 
only by property holders." And the expenses of collection, he 
shows, exceed by a hundred and forty per cent, the net proceeds 
of the poll-tax paid into the Treasury. The poll-tax is set apart 
to the support of free schools, chiefly, though not wholly, for the 
negro children. The tens of thousands of negroes who fail to 
pay the poll-tax, vote not only once, but occasionally several 
times over in the same election, and no one seems to tiiink that. 

Q 2 



228 NEW ORLEANS. [en. xxxii. 

the exercise of political right over the life, liberty, and property 
of the whole community has anything to do ■vrith the discharge 
of political duty to the community, in the direct line even of 
absolute personal and parental responsibility. While this is the 
state of the poll-tax on negroes fur schools, ^Yhat is the action of 
the Education Department ? The State Superintendent, said to 
be a Northern Baptist minister, is enforcing a rule, that has 
received some sanction from the Legislature, for what he calls 
" mixed education," and the sitting of white and black children 
on the same school benches, and being taught in the same 
classes. The rule is as little desired by the coloured people as 
by the white ; it is open to the gravest teclinical difficulty and 
objection in respect of the mere art of school instruction; and 
even though it were sacred in principle and morality, yet it is not 
within a thousand miles of the legitimate sphere of compulsory 
legislation. The rule, of course, cannot be enforced practically 
save as a mere disturbing wedge ; but the savour of it destroys 
confidence, and New Orleans, which before the war liad a muni- 
ficent free school system for its white children, and was going 
gladly on to give the same to the cliildren of the negroes, is 
drifting back into private schools in connection with the various 
Churches — Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Roman Catholic — 
maintained by the subscriptions and fees of those who have to 
pay the whole, their own and the negroes' shares included, of 
the free school taxation. This source of public discontent — 
paying for one's black neighbour and for oneself twice over, and 
spoiling a noble national work in the process — is kept full steam 
up by a reign of Federal misrule, which can only be of the most 
temporary character. The American people must be acute enough 
to perceive that, in this and various ways in the South, they are 
not only imperilling the unity and indivisibility of the Republic, 
but putting the fool's cap on Republican principle. 

The Governor of Louisiana, Warmoth, is a young man of 
spirit and ability, who came down to New Orleans at the close 
of the war, and by dexterously "fugling" the negro vote, got 
himself advanced to tliis high position, in which he seems to be 
growing wiser if richer, and is tacking about, not without skill, 
in the present calm. Tlie outcry against him has been loud and 
deep ; but all that can be said is, that whereas he was once poor, 
lie is now very rich, and that his wealth, if the wages of cor- 
ruption, has been so deftly acquired that no one can lay his 
finger on the foul spot. It is not uncommon to hear in New 
Orleans that Dunn, the negro Lieutenant-Governor, is a more 
trustworthy man than his superior in office ; and while there is 
no doubt that the fair Desdemona of the State has been foully 
wronged, it seems a puzzle whether Othello or lago be the more 
to blame. The New Orleans Chamber of Commerce succeeded 



en. XXXII.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 229 

by an Act and " self-denying ordinance " of the Legislature, last 
session, to get decree that the State debt shall not exceed 
twenty-five millions of dollars. The coloured legislator,-^ in the 
Meciianics' Hall are " pottering " over bills three millions 
beyond the prescribed maximum ; but lenders on State security 
in Louisiana are not without warning. 

Have you been at the French market on a Sunday morning, 
betwixt four and five o'clock ? at the Opera House ? at the 

Masked Ball? at the where "youth and pleasure" (and 

sometimes age and misery) meet ? at the Cemeteries ? are 
questions which follow in rapid succession, as one hears the 
miscellaneous voices of New Orleans. I have been chiefly 
pleased by the success witli which, amidst abounding temp- 
tations, a quiet and happy social intercourse is cultivated by the 
people of New Orleans, But the great and serious interest here, 
amidst all distractions whether of politics or pleasure, reverts 
mainly, and by natural gravitation, to sugar; and to that sub- 
ject 1 shall briefly revert. 

Woodlands, Point Celeste, and Magnolia plantations, as I 
have described, are "model" plantations. They are plan- 
tations on which what is called " the steam train " is brouglit 
into operation in all its completeness. But almost every form 
and modification of process, from the old arrangement of wooden 
rollers and horse mills, adopted when the Jesuits first introduced 
the cultivation of the sugar-cane about the middle of the last 
century, to the higher and later improvements, are to be found 
in this and other sugar-growing regions of the American Union. 
Horse and mule power in the mills, indeed, has rapidly given 
place to steam, and now remains in only 153 plantations, while 
steam-power claims possession of 6G4. The old process, how- 
ever, of boiling in " open kettles," to which the fire is directly 
applied with much waste of fuel, as well as darkening of the 
colour of the sugar and other economical disadvantages, prevails 
in no fewer than 683 of the Louisianian sugar plantations ; on 
81 there are " open pans," giving evaporation under lower tem- 
perature, and improving on the " kettles " pure and simple, but 
the saccharine matter from which has to be put into hogsheads 
with perforated bottoms to let the molasses drip out, so that in 
making up two hogsheads of merchantable sugar a third is 
required from which to fill up the other two, as the percolation 
proceeds ; and in only 53 of the Louisianian plantations have 
"vacuum pans," equal to, or resembling the splendid sugar 
houses of Mr. Johnson or Mr. Lawrence, been introduced. '1 he 
" open kettles" make excellent sugar, though in smaller quantity 
from the same weight of cane than " the steam train and vacuum 
pans ; " and they yield molasse exceeding as much in quality 
as in quantity the final molasse of the " centrifugals " in the 



230 NEW ORLEANS. [cii. xxxii. 

more expensive refineries, and fetching from 40 to GO cents per 
gallon in the market, while the other goes at 15 to 25. Still, 
molasse in sugar-making is only leakage more or less perfectly 
recovered from total loss. There can be no doubt that the 
" open kettle " process is a rude process, and does not give the 
planter the full saccharine juice grown in his fields. Yet, such 
is the burdening effect of large outlays of capital in machinery 
for which there is only a few weeks' work in the year, that the 
" open kettle " people seem to get on as well as, if not better and 
safer than, their more advanced neighbours. There is a large 
foundry at New Orleans which has survived all the changes of 
forty-five years, employing from 300 to 400 hands at three to 
four dollars a day, and is at the top in sugar-making apparatus 
and other branches of ironwork. From Mr. Mitchell, the work- 
ing chief of this establishment, I have received some valuable 
information as to the cost of the various kinds of machinery in 
use on the plantations. The old horse-mills, but with iron 
rollers, cost, according to dimensions, from 450 to 900 dollars, 
exclusive of wooden frame and erections. The cost of the boiling 
apparatus used in connection with one of these mills, and con- 
sisting generally of four semi-spherical cast-iron kettles — capable 
of boiling, say three or four hogsheads of sugar per twenty-four 
hours — is about 300 dollars, exclusive of erection, costing about 
as much. The mills, on the other hand, driven by a steam- 
engine, with necessary pipes and appurtenances, are made for 
prices ranging from 3,000 to 25,000 dollars, according to size, 
making from four to forty hogsheads per twenty-four hours. 
The cost of kettles suitable to the steam-mills, similar to the 
foregoing but larger, and generally used in sets of six (when 
more than twelve hogsheads a day are required two sets are 
employed), is about 1,000 dollars per set, exclusive of erection. 
The kettles, where steam-power has been introduced, are fre- 
quently modified by the use of a steam granulating pan or 
" batterie," generally of copper, the cost of which, with coil of 
pipes, valves, and tanks, is usually about 2,000 dollars. Then 
comes the open steam-train process, by which the kettles are 
dispensed with, and the price of which, with suitable boilers, 
varies from 10,000 to 30,000 dollars. If a vacuum pan be 
added, with pumps and centrifugals, a further expense is made, 
according to capacity, of from 8,000 to 28,000 dollars. There is 
another process effected in what is called " the Eillieu apparatus," 
costing from 20,000 to 50,000 dollars. It will be observed how 
rapidly the absorption of fixed capital proceeds as the process of 
refining sugar on the plantations is pursued from one improve- 
ment to another, and that if there are defects in the ruder 
processes at the one end, there are drawbacks no less serious in 
the higher processes at the other. This is the more worthy of 



CH. XXXII.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 231 

consideration, since the production of sugar in Louisiana does 
not thrive as could be wished, and makes little or no progress 
towards the development attained before the war, though the 
reason does not appear on the surface. Soil and climate are 
suitable. Improved sugar lands can be bought for 25 to 40 
dollars an acre. The newer and cheaper the soil, it is often the 
more vigorously fertile, and the growth of the sugar-canes has to 
be retarded rather than stimulated. But on the old soils, a crop 
of field peas ploughed down gives them a new powder for the 
growth of the canes. The average produce is 1|^ hhds. (1,100 lbs. 
to the hhd.) of sugar with molasses per acre — say 1,500 lbs. of 
sugar at 8 cents per lb., equal to 120 dollars, and 80 gallons of 
molasses at 25 cents per gallon, equal to 20 dollars — in all 140 
dollars of produce per acre, contrasting favourably with the 
200 lbs. of cotton lint at 12 cents per lb., or 24 dollars per acre, 
of the cotton fields. Yet how different the progress of these two 
great branches of Southern production since the war ! Were 
tranquillity to be restored to Cuba, or that island to be annexed 
to the United States, the sugar-planting interest in Louisiana, 
under its present conditions, would probably be placed in perih 
The Cuban insurrection, by disturbing the system of slave labour, 
can only have been a help to the Louisianian planters, while 
the duty on Cuban and other foreign raw sugars is like so much 
money put into their pockets by the Federal Government, which 
Congress at any hour has the power to withdraw. There may 
be little time to lose in probing the difficulties of sugar-production 
in Louisiana to the foundation, and in removing the defects 
under which it labours, the chief of which appear to be an 
inefficient extraction of the juice of the cane alike where the 
fixed capital is small or moderate ; greatly too costly machinery 
and apparatus where the process is more perfect ; and the diffi- 
culty, not peculiar to sugar-culture here, of attempting to do on 
the plantations what had better be done, under other capital and 
responsibility, in the refineries of the large towns.^ 

^ I am not sufficiently informed on the culture of sugar in Cuba or the 
British West Indies to compare it in any way with the sugar culture of 
Louisiana. The processes of sugar-making are very probably as varied and 
as little determined to any common basis of economy in the West Indies as in 
Louisiana. But the gi'eat activity of trade in sugar-making apparatus, more 
especially in Glasgow, for many years, and the great amount of skill and 
ingenuity exerted in the adaptation of apparatus to every size of estate, and 
to various degi-ees of sugar-refining, are sufficient proofs that outside the 
United States very close and eager attention is bemg paid by planters to this 
question. I have been courteously supplied by Messrs. Mirrlees and Tait, of 
Glasgow, with their " prices of machinery for sugar plantations," from which 
a comparison may be made between the outlay that a planter in Cuba or 
Demerara makes in machinery and the similar outlay of a planter in Louisiana. 
Discarding the cattle mills and old " open kettles," which are clearly behind 
the times, and avoiding, on the other hand, the " vacuum pans " and 



232 NEW ORLEANS. [ch. xxxii. 

An apparatus has been patented by a large refining firm in 
Manchester, called " the Sugar Concretor," and not unknown 
though not yet in use here, which, with much economy of fuel and 
labour, concentrates the whole juice of the cane, after the ordinary 
defecation, into a concrete mass, without making molasses, and 
preserving, in fact, both sugar and molasses in one bulk for the 
operations of the refiner. Something of this kind, if moderate 
in cost, economical, and labour-saving, would seem suitable for 
the many sugar plantations of Louisiana that cannot be brought 
into culture from the twofold difficulty of labour and want of 
capital. There are one or two refineries in New Orleans, but 
they are of little account in the sugar-making of the State ; and 
it is surprising, while the town of Greenock, for example, on the 
distant Clyde, has such a multitude of refining establishments, 
adding largely to its wealth and population, that New Orleans, 
with an almost boundless sugar-growing region of its own, and 
within a few days' sail of the Sugar Islands, should make so 
little figure in this growing and profitable branch of trade. 

" centrifugals," which belong more to the sugar refiner than the sugar planter, 
and taking, as the most suitable to Louisiana, with its numerous uncultivated 
sugar estates, the machinery where steam is introduced both for driving and 
boiling, the results are as follow : — In Louisiana a sugar mill driven by steam, 
sufficient to make four hogsheads, or 4,400 lbs. of sugar in twenty-four hours, 
or 183 Ihs. an hour, costs 3,000 dols. ; set of kettles to suit 1,000 dols. — in 
all 4,000 dols, equal, at an exchange of 4| dols. for the pound sterling, to 842?. 
In Glasgow the price of a steam sugar mill, sufficient to make a ton, or 
2,240 Ibsl a day of ten hours, or 224 lbs. an hour, with set of pans (600 gals.) 
and a steam clarifier (400 gals.) to suit, complete, and at the highest value 
they are made, is 4501. It will be observed that the Glasgow apparatus, 
at a cost of 450L, makes 224 lbs. of sugar an hour, while the Louisiana 
apparatus, at a cost of 842?., makes 183 lbs. of sugar an hour. Yet the 
Louisiana apparatus does not include a " steam clarifier," as the Glasgow 
apparatus does, and it is usual in Louisiana to add to the " kettles " a " steam 
granulating pan," which costs 2,000 dols. more. These results, as near a 
common point of comparison as can be approached, support more than a doubt 
whether the Americans, by the tarifi" and its tendency to exclude all inter- 
action of commerce and industry with other coimtries, are not starving their 
foundries and stemming back the development of their sugax estates at the 
same time. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

Mineral Traces in Louisiana. — Discovery of Eock Salt. — Rich Deposit of 
Crystalline Sulphur. — Ramie. — Ladies' Costume in New Orleans. — Tea. — 
Health Statistics of New Orleans. — Carrolton. — Stroll on the Bank of the 
Mississippi. — Fine Art " Remains."— Floral Development in February. 

[New Orleans. — Jan. 25 to Feb. 14.] 

The resources of Louisiana lie so profuse on the surface in the 
remarkable vegetative power of her river lands that it seems an 
almost useless digression to speak of mineral deposits, which 
may here, indeed, be as inconsiderable in value as they are 
unnecessary to the attainment of the highest prosperity. ]\Ir. 
Bigney, the enlightened editor of the New Orleans Times, has 
shown me specimens of lignite found on the Ouachita (Washita) 
Eiver, and another specimen, more strongly carboniferous, black 
and glossy like coal, tliough very light, found by Mr. Todd, a 
Scotchman, on the Red River, in a seam three feet deep. Also, a 
small cake of quartzose-brecchia impregnated with metallic specks, 
and evidently bound together by the action of oxide of iron on 
pebbly or flinty beds. But the presence of such conglomerates is 
not always an indication of seams of ore, and any one who has 
examined the undoubted mineral regions of the Soutli in 
Alabama and Tennessee and parts of North Georgia, and seen 
the hilly ranges, traversed by layers of coal and iron, yet cloven 
in two, and washed into valleys, can be at no loss to conceive 
how widely the mineral treasures, thus broken up, may have 
been dispersed, and falling slowly and irregularly from the 
waters in which they were suspended, may have left their traces 
on many a distant landmark. Yet there are two remarkable 
mineral developments in Louisiana, which seem capable of 
immediate and profitable utilisation. The first is a discovery 
of rock salt on an island Avitliin a few miles of Vermilion 
Bay, an arm of the Gulf. This rock salt is found by chemical 
analysis to be almost a pure chloride of sodium. It has been 
mined, and reduced to the grain of Liverpool coarse salt ; and 
has been brought in large quantity to market, where it has com- 
manded general acceptance. The price of Liverpool salt in New 
Orleans was 1^^ dollars per sack of 210 lbs. The Louisiana was 



234 NEW ORLEANS. [en. xxxiii. 

offered at 1'35 dollars, and the Liverpool was at once reduced to, 
and still remains at, the same figure, though the production ot' 
the Louisiana, from some hitch betwixt the interests concerned, 
appears to have suffered a temporary interruption. The Federal 
Congress, with its usual opaqueness on commercial matters, has 
imposed an enormous duty (18 to 24 cents per 100 lbs.) on 
foreign salt, the whole benefit of which goes to a single salt manu- 
factory somewhere in die North, and all the loss to the American 
people ; but the development of this mine of salt on the Bayou 
Petite Anse, for curing and packing purposes, would be a great 
advantage to Texas and Louisiana, The second mineral dis- 
covery is what from all accounts appears to be a rich deposit of 
crystalline sulphur on the Calcasieu Kiver in the south-western 
part of the State. Tlie strata are peculiar. There is first a bed 
of yellow clay IGO feet deep, then grey and yellow sand 173 
feet, next a blue sandy Ihnestone 48 feet, under which there is a 
deposit of pure crystalline sulphur 108 feet thick. This is 
followed by successive beds of gypsum containing sulphur and 
of pure crystalline sulphur, to a depth, so far as bored, of more 
than a thousand feet from the surface The land was leased to 
bore for oil, sulphur was fovnid instead, and a litigation, of course, 
ensued ; but so valuable a discovery can hardly be long locked 
up "in Chancery." 

(Straying through Carondelet Street one finds the '* new 
riches " of Louisiana displayed on every hand. There was a sale 
one day of Ramie — a plant whose fibre is incomparably superior to 
flax or cotton, and only inferior, if inferior, to silk, and though 
of Japanese origin is attracting some speculative attention here 
and in ^Vlabama — and so I went into the sale-room, found it was 
a sale of a few boxes of roots, and understood at once that liainie 
is for the present in the introductory and planting stage, and 
will have to pass through a long and severe ordeal, llamie has 
hitherto been inquired after chiefly by the manufacturers of 
Bradford, a fact in itself conclusive of its fate, for the Bainic 
fabrics as soon as they appear will be discountenanced and 
depressed in the market by Federal duties, and the belles of 
New Orleans, whose Southern patriotism is only surpassed by 
their exquisite taste in matters of costume, Avill be compelled, 
much against their will, to array themselves in silk. I could not 
help remarking to Pater/a??i«7/as, " How richly, and yet how taste- 
fully, your ladies dress ! Considering the enormous price of 
every article of apparel in this country, I could hardly have 
deemed it possible." "Yes," he replied, "you probably think 
they dress only too well. As Kepublicans, we endeavour to 
repress this feminine frivolity as much as we can, and heap on 
duties in the hope or the pretence of compelling a general sim- 
jilicity of attire. But T am afraid this is one of those wars 



cii. XXXIII.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 235 

against Nature which not only defeat their own object, but 
increase the very evil they profess to war against." I was 
tickled by the naivete, as v/ell as the wisdom, of this observation ; 
for the fair sex all in all are not insensible to economy, and if there 
be any remedy for the so-called weakness of women it must be 
in spreading before them as great a profusion of ribbons, laces, 
silks, and ramies as possible, every new beauty more cheaply 
beautiful than another. Taste and even tasteless desire become 
wonderfully bewildering amid great variety of choice, and are 
most sure to be driven back on the right course when economy 
is on the side of what is most pretty and becoming. Ramie is a 
new sensation in the market, while tea is quite an old one. Yet, 
the cultivation of tea is also commanding some attention in 
Louisiana, and thousands of seeds and plants are being distri- 
buted by the Department of Agriculture at Washington for the 
propagation of this new industry in the Southern States. But 
I confess I have been more engaged by the arrival in the Mis- 
sissippi of a cargo of tea direct from China than by all these 
enterprising efforts of General Capron. The Southern people 
have been plied so long by the vilest corruptions of green tea, 
and the saying " it will do for tlie Southern market " is so 
common in the tea streets of New York when a particularly bad 
invoice turns up, that the consumption of the Chinese beverage 
has been rapidly going out as the " Heathen Chinee " themselves 
have been coming in, and a direct importation of sound tea into 
New Orleans would probably make more satisfactory progress 
than the importation of pigtails. For if coffee be good in the 
morning, tea is an agreeable change in the afternoon ; and in 
these hot climates cold tea lemonade, iced, is declared by the few 
who have tried it to be more fragrant and refreshing than the 
most liberal libations of soda-water or other effervescing liquids. 
The city of New Orleans, amidst all its wants, has now got 
one thing which suits it exactly — an ice factory — the sweetest, 
cleanest, most scientific, artistic, and beautiful of all factories 
ever seen or imagined, where 72 tons of ice a day are manufac- 
tured from distilled Mississippi water by fire and steam-power, 
in a general atmosphere equable and temperate. This marvel 
has been accomplished by Carre's apparatus, founded on Fara- 
day's discovery of the intense cold produced by the volatilisation 
of liquified ammoniacal gas ; and the commercial agent here has 
been a company, with half a million of dollars capital, who have 
reduced the price of ice from 40 and sometimes 60 dollars to 15 
dollars per ton, and dividing 25 per cent, of profits, to the utter 
dismay and confusion of the Northern ice importers. The ice is 
brought out from the machines in the purest rectangular slabs, 
which, on being placed one on top of another, become a solid 
mass. It is somewhat more porous than the " Wenham liakc " 



23G NEW ORLEANS. [cii. xxxiii. 

product, and is not so fit in the bar-rooms of being poured out 
of one glass in which it has been once used into a clean one ; but 
this is a difference on whicli the bar-keepers maintain a discreet 
reserve, for only to few of the frequenters of these establishments 
is it known that they are served with ice that has been sucked 
in a sherry-cobbler, or mouthed in a cocktail, by previous votaries 
of Bacchus. The success of the ice factory in New Orleans is 
spreading the same scientific adaptation into the Southern towns, 
from Atlanta to Shreveport. 

The Board of Health in New Orleans publishes an annual 
report. Though statistics in this country have no very exact 
basis, yet they are always interesting and instructive. I asked 
the President of the St. Andrew's Society — where in the wide 
world is there not a "thin red line " of Scots? — what good Avork 
the St. Andrew's, having the night before jovially celebrated the 
anniversary of Burns, has done, or was in the act or intention 
of doing ; and his reply was — " The St. Andrew's Society, Sir, 
during my incumbency, has built a cemetery, which, let me tell 
you, is one of the first necessities of life in New Orleans." But 
this was said with a smile neither grim nor Sardonic, and with 
a happy soul in his eyes shining through and overflowing his 
spectacles from such a depth of genial and lustrous humour as 
pi'oved at once that he did not mean what he was saying, albeit 
the St. Andrew's Cemetery is a fact. The unhcalthincss of the 
Southern cities, I still think, is generally exaggerated. The 
total number of deaths in New Orleans last year, excluding still- 
born children (449) was 6,942, which, on the basis of population 
given by the census, is about one in 28 of the inhabitants. But 
New Orleans is just as likely to have 250,000 souls as 191,512 ; 
and there are included the " blacks and mulattoes," 50,499 by the 
census, among whom the recorded deaths in 1870 are 2,500, or one 
in 20, swelling in the total the apparent mortality of the whites, 
among whom the number of deaths on the census basis is not 
more than one in 30. The deaths from yellow fever in 1870 
were 587; but the sacrifices of that occasional plague are 
exceeded by the more permanent burnt-offering of consumption, 
which had 757 victims ; and small-pox, ravaging chiefly the 
negroes, carried off 528, almost as many as yellow fever. Of 
other deadly fevers there was scarcely any trace. Of natives of 
Scotland 31 died, of natives of England 99, of natives of Ireland 
551 — the Irish being next to the negroes the most mortal. 

During the hot sickly season in New Orleans, people go away 
as most people try to do in other large cities of the world ; while 
in the pleasant and healthy periods, such as now, few care to 
leave the gay and busy town, although there are retreats at 
liand when they happen to have such a desire. There is, for 
one, the suburb of Carrolton, up river on the levee, where Dan 



en. xxxiii.] STATE OF LOUISIANA. 237 

Ilikcok, a retired Mississippi captain, has "fixed up" an liotel 
and gardens with much taste, and whither the city cars ^o and 
come every hour of the day. On getting into tlie shell road 
towards Dan's hostelry, no one can fail to observe the comfort 
and elegance of the residences on either side, and the white 
clover covering all the banquettes with the brightest green 
carpet, and springing up even under the iron rails as if traffic 
itself were to be defied by sheer power of the most sweet and 
succulent verdure. Tlie day of my visit was one of those mildest 
of April in England wlicn great patches of white light are spread 
over a cloudy sky, and Nature, withdrawing herself behind veils 
and draperies, Kcetns poising with easy wing betwixt the poles of 
an infinite variety. The deej> winding river was smooth and 
bright as a mirror under broad and steady gleams of light from 
the heavens, Avhile its flow was not more perceptible than the 
breath of a sleeping child. Yet let us not be deceived — there is 
a latent force in that mild current greater than the force of ten 
thousand giants. See the depth of the levee towards the land, 
and how far you have to descend to the stores and shanties on 
that side ! If the Mississippi in its rise, or in the action of its 
many currents, were to overflow or pierce the bank, or (since the 
levees are now a public interest and ''under government") 
through any jobbery, or corruption, or want of watchfulness on 
the part of the State, to make a "^crevasse" in the mud wall, 
the enormous volume of water would rush through the breach 
with the roar and violence of a cataract, and submerge in total 
ruin the vineyards and vegetable gardens in which a multitude 
of plodding Germans are supplying by daily toil the demands of 
the New Orleans market. liow sad if, in the very place where 
(lovernment should be as reliable as a second Providence, it 
should prove utterly at fault ! But there was nothing on the 
levee to suggest such disquieting reflections. Big geese were 
gabbling and flapping their wings along the bank, and slim 
negroes were talking French with the grimace, vivacity, and 
repartee of Parisians. A broken statue of pure marble lay on 
the side walk, a human male figure obviously, with back upper- 
most — truncated — head, arms, and limbs nowhere. On turning it 
round, not without serious damage to a pair of dog-skin gloves that 
cost me exactly 11-^d. in the old country, and that I had begun 
from long and faithful service to look upon as no mean work of 
art in themselves, behold ! a breast of Hercules modelled with 
almost divine art of sculpture. What could this be, where did 
it come from ? Searching about, fragments of the same marble 
statuary were found — the draped limbs of a Venus, the head and 
neck of a greyhound with a finely chiselled collar — serving the 
" base use " of curbstones in one of the deep square gutters 
common here. All the information I could gather about these 



238 NEW ORLEANS. [en. xxxiii. 

line-art relics was that tliej were dug out of the levee some 
twenty years ago, and that the tradition then was that they were 
part of the luxury of some grand French seigneur whose mansion 
and parterres were swept down in the fury of a crevasse ! 
Strolling away from the unprofitable sentimentality of such a 
revelation into Mr. Hickok's conservatory, a splendid Bychnonia 
Venosta, or " Mexican Trumpet Vine," flowering from Christmas 
to March, and stretching like a curtain with bright yellow 
fringes of flower along the whole glass-house, consoled me a 
good deal. Peaches, grapes, figs (a slip of which put into the 
ground grows in a year or two into a goodly tree) were all vital, 
and plum-trees already in blossom. Roses, in great variety, come 
out towards the end of February, and when they are in their 
first full blow the " Knights of Comus " and other " mystic ties " 
of New Orleans will, on the annual festival of Mardi-Gras. be 
covering the stage of the Opera House, and descending into the 
streets, with gorgeous processions and tableaux vivants in all the 
gay and demonstrative spirit of their race. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Incidents at Summit. — Want of ToAvns in the Interior of Mississippi. — ]\f r. 
Solomon's Account of his Commercial Relations with the Planters and 
Negroes. — The Law of Lien. — L^sury. — The Free-trade Question.— Some 
Characteristics of the Dram and Drug Shops. 

[Summit, Miss.— Feb. 15-16.] 

It were idle for a traveller to attempt to find in the names of 
places some index of their general qualities, and such an attempt 
would be especially inappropriate in the United States, where 
country towns are for the most part named after individual 
founders, the ubiquitous Jones carrying off a large share of such 
landmarks. Bat Summit, near the southern border of the State 
of Mississippi, really indicates an ascent from the low level 
lacustrine region about New Orleans to the gently elevated table- 
land that distinguishes more than two-thirds of the State from 
its famously fertile but sickly mortal bottom-land along the 
course of the great river. In another sense Summit may be so 
called, because it may be taken as presenting a fair sample of 
the summit of all that is wrong, adverse, difficult, and uncom- 
fortable in the reconstructed Southern States. Strangers from 
afar seldom find their way to such a part of the American Union 
as this, or, passing through it in the night train, remain unconscious 
alike of its existence and its circumstances. On entering my 
name and country in the hotel book, I became an object of 
affectionate solicitude to the clerk, a grave, elderly man of the 
race known in America as " Scots-Irish," who wondered what 
had brought me here, still more what could possibly induce me 
to stay, and who seriously advised me to think better of it than 
to remain ! There was not the slightest trace of inhospitality in 
these remarks. The old man seemed to speak from the depths 
of a brotherly heart. Life and property, he assured me, were 
not particularly secure in Southern Mississippi ; there was no 
industry of any kind but growing cotton and hogs ; the planters 
were very poor, and had many grievances against which they 
exclaimed night and day ; and the white man had become as like 
the negro as two peas, only a little more so. Yet, to show what 



210 SUMMIT. [cH. XXXIV. 

different e!>tlmates of the relative advantages of distant countries 
may circulate side by side, a youthful cavalier, with leather riding 
gloves of tlie pattern of the reign of (vharles I., was ready to bet 
me a hundred-dollar bill that 1 would never see Scotland again, 
for " Scotland was the poorest country on the face of the whole 
earth." It would have been a pity to strip this young man 
of his hundred-dollar greenback, of which denomination of 
currency it did not seem likely that lie had many to spare. 
Besides, it was so easy for him, with the help of liis revolver, to 
win ! In all the cii'cumstances, I declined the bet, and shame- 
fully allowed the honour of " Auld Scotland " to go to the hogs. 
In a State of such territorial magnitude as Mississippi, never 
one-tenth iiart ])eopled and occupied, the attraction of settlers is 
naturally towards the best and most fertile districts — towards the 
" bottom," where the fertility is great, or the " prairie land," 
where, with scarcely inferior powers of production, there are 
superior sanitary conditions ; wiiile inferior territory — such as the 
land from this point along the lines of the New Orleans and Jack- 
son and Mississippi Central Railways to Memphis — receives, with 
few exceptions, only subordinate attention, and presents society in 
a more rough and straggling condition than in many other parts of 
the same State. Thus, it often happens along the whole west- 
ward wave of population, North no doubt as well as South, that 
rude and almost inchoate elements of society are found in com- 
paratively near propinquity to considerable developments of 
wealth and civilization. Looking out from Summit, there is 
visible only an expanse of not very majestic forest land, with 
few traces of culture or population on any side. The farms and 
plantations, of which there are many, seem to have been picked 
out, far apart from one another, in the recesses of the woods, 
without making any great impression on the natural wildness of 
the country. Summit is 105 miles from New Orleans and 120 
from Yicksburg, which latter city, after sustaining a long siege 
during the war from its formidable bluff on the Mississippi, is now 
growing into a commercial emporium of more and more impor- 
tance. The greater towns are the lights of industry in such 
regions as this, giving to the cultivators of the soil, markets, 
sympathy, encouragement, and help in the prosecution of their 
labours. The great distance betwixt such towns and the agricul- 
tural settlements is like a break in the chain of communication 
with the outer world, throwing the country-people back so far 
into barbarism, with all its passions of greed, rapine, and impos- 
ture. The planters of ]\Iississippi, a large proportion of whom 
must feel the weight of this isolation, held a convention recently, 
in which they passed resolutions setting forth their grievances, 
chief among which is the enormous usury to which they are 
subjected in the purchase of their supplies and the sale of their 



cii. XXXIV.] STATE OF IIISSISSIFPI. 241 

produce, and sighing for closer and directer relations with the 
spinners of cotton, and for some participation in the ordinary 
rules and usages of mercantile civilization. The change that 
has passed over the Slave States has in the meantime dislocated 
the conditions of credit. When the planter was an owner of 
slaves, and had along with that ownership and fund of property, 
now swept away, an unlimited control over the labour necessary 
to bring his crop Into market, he enjoyed great credit in th6 
river towns and seaports. That is now gone, and the opening 
thus made is occupied by Jewish storekeepers, mostly young men 
pushed forward by an unseen force in the large cities, and opera^/^ 
ting 'with great power over the plantations, though themse|y^ 
poor enough, and kept tight by the head at the farther end. It 
is doubtless owing to the greater distance of many Mississippi 
cotton-fields from towns and village centres of wealth and credit, 
where old local merchants of repute have survived the war, that 
this peculiar development is more conspicuous here than else- 
wjiere ; and that the system of paying the negro field-hands in 
part by rations Is more'"prevalent in Mississippi than In any of 
the more eastern cotton States, where the liberal concession to 
the negroes of one-half the crop without rations, instead of 
one-third the crop with rations,~lias become the prevailing rule. 
The system of business here has been so well explained by 
Mr. Solomon — a wide-awake but ingenuous Jewish trader, who 
makes no secret of his transactions, and Is animated by a 
humane spirit quite engaging — that I cannot do better than 
produce our conversation. 

The monthly ration of a negro field-hand, Mr. Solomon assures 
me, is one bushel of corn meal, the first price of which Is 75 cents, 
the second 1.50 dol.; 16 lbs. of bacon, the first price of which Is 13 
cents, the second 25 cents, per lb.; and one gallon of molasses, 
the first price of which Is 50 cents, the second one dollar. 

" But, Mr. Solomon, Is not 100 per cent, of retail profit too 
much?" 

" It ish large profit, but it ish profit in de books, not profit In 
de pocket." 

"How so?" 

" Why, de white planter is very poor, and de negro, who some- 
times raises crop for himself, is very Idle, and knows no accounts. 
He comes to me and says he will raise crop if he Is fed and gets 
clothes, and we say, ' Well, raise crop and we shall see.'" 

" And how do you do ?" 

" Do ? We do great deal. I have three horses riding on saddle 
— my own one of de best pacers in de country; and when Sunday 
comes I say to my clerks, ' Go you dis way and dat,' and I go 
de other, and we see how de work is going on; and if negro is 
doing nothing we put them all," with a wave of his hand, 
" outside," 



242 SUM^riT. [cH. XXXIV. 

" Beg your pardon, Islv. Solomon, but what do you mean by 
putting- them all outside ? " 

" Outside, ish it ? — outside de store, of course. De store ish de 
inside of de plantation. If de negro wants bacon or molasses, we 
give him half de quantity or none, and planter de same. His 
wife wants silk gown ; we give her cotton one or none." 

" Do you mean to say, Mr. Solomon, that there are white 
Christian people, possessors of large landed estates, in this 
bondage to you?" 

" Christians did you say ? Many of dem, too many for de 
books. Christians ! Dey eat swine's flesh three times a day, and 
call it goot living. Ah! you are joking about Christians ! But 
many white men in de war are sold — father, mother, child, the 
very clothes on their backs, all sold. What is lien on de land? 
It brings no monish. White planter is la cavalier, but black 
man must eat, and if he not work we put him outside with lien 
on his crop." 

Mr. Solomon, for the rations and goods which he supplies, and 
on Avhich he has 100 per cent, of profit, takes under his lien the 
cotton, hides, and other produce of the farms at prices which en- 
able him to turn them over with another profit in New Orleans 
or Memphis, where very probably he himself is under stringent 
obligations. But in two or three years he ought to be very rich. 
Yet these local Jew traders often run away, leaving their city 
friends in the lurch. For, as Mr. Solomon truly says in extenu- 
ation of this offence, as well as of the hard and usurious conditions 
on whicli the business is conducted, the large profits are often only 
in the books, and the few industrious and successful planters 
and negroes, who are squeezed to the last cent, do not always 
compensate the trader foi the many unable at the end of the season 
to square their accounts. It is difficult to get the negro, who is 
now on the front either as a cultivator or a partnership-cultivator 
of the soil, to comprehend the ordinary principles of commercial 
obligation. When he enters into treaty with a local merchant for 
supplies, giving ^jcr contra cibundant lien on the produce of his 
labour, he goes on rejoicingly for the year ; but the treaty, in his 
opinion, ends with the year, and if the merchant has then a 
balance on the wrong side, the negro thinks that it is fairly "quits" 
between them — that the contra side of his account is obliterated 
by the natural roll of the seasons, and that the new year begins 
with new and clean paper. Yet Mr. Solomon shows me many 
debit balances carried over in his ledger, shaking his head, and 
adding his usual ejaculation of "profit in de books," which, as 
distinguished from " profit in de pocket," seems to him like 
the dividing line betwixt light and darkness, order and chaos. 
The law of lien in the Southern States has assumed a some- 
what complex character. At New Orleans and other ocean 



cii. XXXIV.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 243 

ports there is a vendor's right to seize produce even when shipped 
in the harbour, if the original purchase-money has not been paid, 
wiiich is evidently conceived in the interest of the planters, and 
which the banks, in becoming interested by discounting on bills 
of lading, can only surmount by seeing that the vendor's right 
has been legally discharged. In the present state of affairs, the 
law of lien is more frequently brought against the planter thari 
in his favour. At the same time, as regards the land itself, the 
law assumes a lien in favour of the seller till the purchase-money 
has been paid ; and land rights are as carefully guarded, and titles 
as consecutively registered, as in any other part of the civilized 
world, although an inattention to precise conditions of the law 
leads to complications, feuds, and sometimes acts of violence of 
the like of which we read in the history of the old country two 
or three hundred years ago. As regards a lien on the agricultural 
crop, even where the negroes sole are the cultivators, under such 
arrangements as those of Mr. Solomon, with three saddled ponies 
in weekly service, it is all plain sailing, and the holder of the lien 
will get the whole crop, save in so far as Sambo may surrep- 
titiously sell parts of it to somebody else! But in the more common 
case, where the negro, though a labourer, is a partnership-cultivator 
with the planter, it does not seem to matter much whether the 
planter undertakes to supply his negroes with rations, or, by 
surrendering to them a larger share of the crops, leaves them to 
provide their own commissariat, for in the latter case he gives his 
lines to the storekeeper for what the negroes want, and thereby 
becomes responsible for the final discharge. The storekeepers 
like tlie planter's " line," because it gives them another eye over 
the plantation, and an additional element of security. But where 
the planter gives his " line," there is now lien upon lien — the 
whole crop is his till he has settled up his " lines" with the negroes ; 
and curious scenes arise when an outside storekeeper, not observing* 
strictly the rule of the plantation, sends his waggon to lift the share 
o*" the ci'op of a negro on whom he says he has a "lien," and the 
planter interposes, and, giving the preference to his own "Imes" 
and the foregoing lien on which they are founded, endeavours to 
carry out a division on a basis of common honesty throughout. 
How the books on the plantations are kept I do not know ; but the 
share-crop system, though much favoured by many in the South 
as the only means of obtaining reasonable service from the negro 
freedman, seems liable to grave objection, and inferior in various 
points of view, as regards the true freedom and independence of 
labour, to the system of definite wages for work done. 

There is no banking accommodation in this and many other 
districts of the State of Mississippi worthy of the name. Yet 
planters of means and substance can sometimes obtain loans on 
their personal notes at an interest of 20 to oO per cent, per 

K 2 



244 SUMMIT. [cii. xxxiv. 

annum ; and, deplorable as this may seem, until country gentle- 
men in the South show more attention to tlieir notes when due 
by personal appearance, even at the expense of a ten or fifteen 
miles' ride on horseback, it must be vain for tliem to think of 
coming under the reign of ordinary monetary usance. Complaints 
of baidc and note collectors as to the cavalier indifference of the 
onerous parties arc very common, even wliere no doubt is enter- 
tained of ultimate payment. 

Mr. Solomon, in his contract of supplying "rations" to keep 
the plantations going, conhncs his obligation to meal, bacon, 
and molasses — the primal necessaries of life, which, as direct 
products of tlic soil, are abundant and cheap in the United 
States, and which he sells at nearly double their cost — but it is 
not to be supposed that the wants of the cultivators of the soil 
are confined to these simple elements of existence. The " Dry 
floods and Notions Store," in which line Mr. Solomon himself 
has a department, flourishes here as elsewhere in the United 
States, and dispenses its heavily protected or heavily tariffed 
wares at prices 200 to 300 per cent, above their real value. 
A pair of coarse negro boots, one of the cheapest articles 
in the stores, is charged five dollars. The Northern manufac- 
turers themselves are sometimes astonished at the retail prices 
of their goods in the Soutli, and a boot and shoe manufac- 
turer of New York informs me that it has been in consideration 
by his trade in the North to open depots in the South, with a 
retail department to "force the running," to use a phrase of the 
Turf, in retail prices. Very good ; but I could not help asking 
him whether it woukl not be well to begin by abolishing Customs 
duties both on leather and on boots and sliocs, and thus promote 
at the foundation the descent from an inflation and exorbitance 
of prices which, in relation to other great commercial countries, 
must prove fatal to American prosperity. He remarked that 
large quantities of the best English and French leather are 
imported into New York; and this is quite true. The com- 
mercial aristocracy of New York are able and willing to pay 
any sum asked for the best articles of clothing the world can 
produce, and New York, being the great port of entry, where 
foreign goods pass into manufacture and consumption with the 
utmost facility, they have little beyond a mere 50 or 100 per 
cent, extra — to them a small matter — to complain of. But 
this does not meet the case of the great American Republic of 
citizen farmers and negro freedmen, living or attempting to live 
in the remotest parts of a vast territory, where the effect of 
monopolies and artificial restrictions is to bring the article wanted 
to the poorer consumer at a price to him much more severe. 
The Boot and Shoe Bcportcr, a manufacturers' organ, meets the 
complaints of dear boots and shoes by referring to the high price 



CH. XXXIV.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 245 

of hides, in which, indeed, trade has been active for six or eiglit 
months past at a rise of two to three cents per lb. But this 
trifle, while giving to Mr. Solomon or his constituents a better 
return for part of tlieir raw produce, is obviously insufBcient to 
account for the excessive dearness of manufactures of leather. 
The retailers, it is true, do lay on tiieir figures very heavy, and 
will only resile from high profits under some strong necessity ; 
for they do not seem to see that they gain nothing; that what 
they exact from others, others exact from them ; and that they are 
simply engaged in limiting business and making it unsound 
througliout. The baneful effect of high monopoly prices of 
articles of consumption on what is the main interest of tlie 
United States — the successful occupancy and cultivation of the 
land — and how difficult they must render the growing of cotton 
with profit at the price that cotton is now likely to command, 
are applications of this question that must be plain to every 
understanding. 

" Let us liquor," says an American friend on whom I have 
been pressing these observations; and "liquor" we attempt 
to do. 

"Is this brandy French brandy, or brandy from the juice of 
the grape?" 

"No, sare," quoth the honest barman. "It is applejack from 
Massachusetts, and quite as good as brandy." 

" Humph ! A little of your best whisky, and be sure it is 
whisky without compound of turpentine, or benzoin, or fusil oil, 
or any more noxious ingredient." 

" This whisky, sirree," rejoins the barman, " comes from the 
rectifiers." 

" Hang your rectifiers ! Good malt spirit, man, requires no 
rectification except plenty of cold spring water." 

And the jolly barman, now put to his mettle, shakes up his 
black bottle with its gold legend of " Bourbon " or " Bobeson 
County," and shakes it again to make the liquor sparkle ; but it 
is the sparkle, the glitter, of a snake. "It biteth like a serpent 
and stingeth like an adder." In no part of the world probably 
is liquor-drinking held in greater social disesteem than in the 
Soutliern States ; the ladies regard it with horror ; and strong 
drink seems all but banished from private houses. But there is 
much drinking, nevertheless, about the bar-rooms and liquor 
saloons, and the effect of the whisky of the country on the wild 
youths and loafing negroes of Mississippi is a caution for any one 
to see. It makes them rage and bellow like bulls of Bashan, 
and in the reaction and prostration of excess the consequences 
must be terrific. A bar-room in America, with its long rows of 
labelled bottles, its piles of drinking vessels, its odours of phar- 
macy, and its varied paraphernalia, as if for operating medically 



244 SUMMIT. [cH. xxxiv. 

annum ; and, deplorable as this may seem, until country gentle- 
men in the South show more attention to their notes when due 
by personal appearance, even at the expense of a ten or fifteen 
miles' ride on horseback, it must be vain for them to think of 
coming under the reign of ordinary monetary usance. Complaints 
of bank and note collectors as to the cavalier indiiference of the 
onerous parties are very common, even where no doubt is enter- 
tained of ultimate payment. 

Mr. Solomon, in his contract of supplying "rations" to keep 
the plantations going, confines his obligation to meal, bacon, 
and molasses — the primal necessaries of life, which, as direct 
products of the soil, are abundant and cheap in the United 
States, and which he sells at nearly double their cost — but it is 
not to be supposed that the wants of the cultivators of the soil 
are confined to these simple elements of existence. The " Dry 
Goods and Notions Store," in which line Mr. Solomon himself 
has a department, flourishes here as elsewhere in the United 
States, and dispenses its heavily protected or heavily tariffed 
wares at prices 200 to 300 per cent, above their real value. 
A pair of coarse negro boots, one of the cheapest articles 
in the stores, is charged five dollars. The Northern manufac- 
turers themselves are sometimes astonished at the retail prices 
of their goods in the South, and a boot and shoe manufac- 
turer of New York informs me that it has been in consideration 
by his trade in the North to open depots in the South, with a 
retail department to " force the running," to use a phrase of the 
Turf, in retail prices. Very good ; but I could not help asking 
him whether it would not be well to begin by abolishing Customs 
duties both on leather and on boots and shoes, and thus promote 
at the foundation the descent from an inflation and exorbitance 
of prices whicli, in relation to other great commercial countries, 
must prove fatal to American prosperity. He remarked that 
large quantities of the best English and French leather are 
imported into New York; and this is quite true. The com- 
mercial aristocracy of New York are able and willing to pay 
any sum asked for the best articles of clothing the world can 
produce, and New York, being the great port of entry, where 
foreign goods pass into manufacture and consumption with the 
utmost facility, they have little beyond a mere 50 or 100 per 
cent, extra — to them a small matter — to complain of But 
this does not meet the case of the great American Republic of 
citizen farmers and negro freedmen, living or attempting to live 
in the remotest parts of a vast territory, where the effect of 
monopolies and artificial restrictions is to bring the article wanted 
to the poorer consumer at a price to him much more severe. 
The Boot and Shoe Reporter, a manufacturers' organ, meets the 
complaints of dear boots and shoes by referring to the high price 



CH. XXXIV.] STATE OF MISSISSTPPI. 245 

of hides, in which, indeed, trade has "been active for six or eiglit 
months past at a rise of two to three cents per lb. But this 
trifle, while giving to Mr. Solomon or his constituents a better 
return for part of their raw produce, is obviously insufficient to 
account for the excessive dearness of manufactures of leather. 
The retailers, it is true, do lay on their figures very heavy, and 
will only resile from high profits under some strong necessity ; 
for they do not seem to see that they gain nothing; that what 
they exact from others, others exact from them ; and that they are 
simply engaged in limiting business and making it unsound 
througliout. The baneful effect of high monopoly prices of 
articles of consumption on what is the main interest of the 
United States — the successful occupancy and cultivation of the 
land — and how difficult they must render the growing of cotton 
with profit at the price that cotton is now likely to command, 
are applications of this question that must be plain to every 
understanding. 

" Let us liquor," says an American friend on whom I have 
been pressing these observations; and "liquor" we attempt 
to do. 

" Is this brandy French brandy, or brandy from the juice of 
the grape?" 

"No, sare," quoth the honest barman. "It is applejack from 
Massachusetts, and quite as good as brandy." 

" Humph ! A little of your best whisky, and be sure it is 
whisky without compound of turpentine, or benzoin, or fusil oil, 
or any more noxious ingredient." 

" This whisky, sirree," rejoins the barman, " comes from, the 
rectifiers." 

" Hang your rectifiers ! Good malt spirit, man, requires no 
rectification except plenty of cold spring water." 

And the jolly barman, now put to his mettle, shakes up his 
black bottle with its gold legend of "Bourbon" or " Bobcson 
County," and shakes it again to make the liquor sparkle ; but it 
is the sparkle, the glitter, of a snake. " It biteth like a serpent 
and stingeth like an adder." In no part of the world probably 
is liquor-drinking held in greater social disesteem than in the 
Southern States ; the ladies regard it with horror ; and strong- 
drink seems all but banished from private houses. But there is 
much drinking, nevertheless, about the bar-rooms and liquor 
saloons, and the effect of the whisky of the country on the wild 
youths and loafing negroes of Mississippi is a caution for any one 
to see. It makes them rage and bellow like bulls of Bashan, 
and in the reaction and prostration of excess the consequences 
must be terrific. A bar-room in America, with its long rows of 
labelled bottles, its piles of drinking vessels, its odours of phar- 
macy, and its varied paraphernalia, as if for operating medically 



210 SUMMIT. [cH. xxMv. 

on the liumaii system, lias always looked to mc like a drug slu^p. 
On the other hand, the drug stores in the smallest towns are the 
neatest, most attractive, sweetly perfumed, and restaurant-like 
])laccs of thai kind to he seen in any country ; and in hot 
weather they really do dispense spiced and cooling drinks of a 
refreshing quality. I do not know whether the frauds and 
vices of the drinking system have anything to do with the ]n"os- 
})erity of the drug trade, but the sale of quack medicines has 
attained a magnitude to be found nowhere else. It is more than 
])robable that ])eoi)lc who begin by taking drugs in the bar-rooms, 
and refreshments in the drug sho])s, ])roeeed to doctor themselves 
in the light of the (puick advertisements, and thus by one fjilse 
stc]) at the outset, inverting the ordinary rule of life, are carried 
on for the cure of the more inveterate disorders to such lirms as 
" Circumventible & Co., India Herb ])octors " — a stylc-and-title, 
by the way, that is no invention of mine, but is copied from an 
actual signboard in Chattanooga. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

The Capital of Mississippi. — Interview with Governor Alcorn. — Average 
Product of Cotton per Acre in tiie "Mississippi Bottom." — Vital and 
Economic Statistics. — Comparison of Wliitc and No^fro Birtiis and Mar- 
riages. — Value of Farms in ISfJO and LS7(). — Proposed Payment of the 
Old State Debt. 

[Jackson, Mif^s.— Feb. 17-20.] 

One is struck, in ])assing- tlivongli the ccufrul rL\i>-ion oi" the 
State ot" ]Mississi[)[)i, by the rouy'liiicss of the country. Lazy 
yeliow creeks flow tliroui^li a sandy clay soil of much tlie same 
kind as that of the Atlantic States; greenisii pools rot the roots 
of the trees in the woods ; the ditches on the cultivated parts are 
overgrown with weeds and busiies, and the fields after rain are 
saturated with water. To this general character tliere are some 
exceptions, and the country improves as one advances north- 
ward towards JMemphis ; but want of settlers and of the hand of 
fertilising and civilizing industry is conspicuous throughout. Yet 
as a field of white labour this wilderness is probably more con- 
genial than the fat bottom lands, where, with marvellous pro- 
ductiveness, there is more than equal natural wildness, and a 
malaria fatal to European constitutions. It is observed of the 
German Ereehold Associations in the North and West, which 
are just beginning to turn their attentiori soutlnvard, that they 
do not look at rich lands, but rather at those depreciated by the 
natives, on which, through good and careful husbandry, a com- 
fortable and inde])endent result may be attained. The negroes, 
under free labour, are drawn off from such regions to places 
where cotton grows more abundantly with less toil, and where 
in the matter of health they have no competitors, and conse- 
quently have easy masters. Tiie cry of want of labour is thus 
universal ; but supposing that white labourers could be brought 
here to work under planters and farmers, which is somewhat 
chimerical, there is an insuperable obstacle in the want of such 
housing as white men could be expected to occupy, as well as in 
the high rate of negro remuneration. If negroes cannot l)e 
retained with all the reward and privilege offered them, which 



248 JACKSON. [CH. xxxv. 

are just aLout as much as they like to ask, what terms are to be 
made with white hibourers? Nevertheless, there is a continuous 
line of railway communication through all this central part of 
the State, and the lands in this respect are within the available 
limits of occupation. The New Orleans and Jackson and the 
Mississippi Central, uniting at Canton, are managed under trust, 
and in " maintenance of way " are by no means perfect ; but 
they keep the country and means of transit with due regularity 
open. 

Jackson, the capital of the State, is a town of 5,000 inha- 
bitants. There is a spacious State House, like nearly all State 
Houses in the South, under repair, a commodious mansion 
house for the Governor, a city hall, several churches, and 
many private residences denoting a large proportion of people 
of taste and culture. The business part of the town, in- 
cluding a large hotel, was burned down in the war, but has 
since been rebuilt, and goodly streets of stores and offices have 
risen up, with fewer foreign, that is German or Jewish, names 
than I have observed in some other inland Southern towns. I 
sought an interview with the Governor, Mr. Alcorn, who is a 
man not only of much social consequence in the State, but of 
great mark in the politics of the Federal Union, and was politely 
received by him in his rooms at the Capitol. Mr. Alcorn, in the 
times before the war, was what is called an " Old-line Whig," 
and was thus opposed in the political contests of Mississippi to 
Mr. Jefferson Davis, who was a Democrat. Like many more in 
the South, while disapproving or but faintly and doubtfully 
approving the " secession ordinances," Mr. Alcorn felt the force 
of his allegiance to the State, and, I believe, took up arms with 
his compatriots. But tlie old difference betwixt him and Mr. 
Davis would seem to have been too much for harmonious action 
in tlie new state of affairs, and an apparent slight on the part of 
the President of the Confederation in the distribution of military 
commands, caused Mr. Alcorn to retire at an early period of the 
war. When the struggle closed, Mr. Alcorn naturally came to 
the front, and, applying himself to the reconstruction question 
with all his practical ability, was elected Governor of Mississippi, 
to the satisfaction of the Radical party and the negroes, while at 
the same time liis position in the State as an eminent lawyer and 
an extensive planter rendered him more acceptable to the conquered 
Southerners than many of the State Governors who rose into power 
on the tremendous reactionary wave that followed ''the surrender." 
Mr. Alcorn is past middle age, but in the full vigour of his facul- 
ties. I found his Excellency busy in the discharge of the duties of 
his office ; and in the casual business of the hour, such as the ap- 
pointment of county treasurers under proper sureties, the displace- 
ment of sheriffs who had allowed riotous assemblies to insult law 



CH. XXXV.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 24 

and order in their districts, and the adoption of measures for organ- 
izing and calling out the militia in support of the civil power 
where it was too weak, had some insight into the details that 
devolve on the Grovernor of a Southern State. Mr. Alcorn was 
ill enough pleased at the prevalence of murder and homicide in 
Mississippi, but maintained that the powers of Government 
within the State were amply sufficient to enforce an impartial 
execution of the law, and complained chiefly of the difficulty on 
the border lines of the State, where violent and lawless persons 
had an opportunity of organizing and perpetrating crimes, and 
escaping from justice with provoking facility. I had just read 
in the papers an account of a fire which a few days before liad 
broken out in the large gin-house on Mr. Alcorn's plantation at 
[Friars' Point on the Mississippi, by which 500 bales of cotton 
were consumed in a few minutes, and two gins and saw and 
grist mills, furnished with the best steam-power machinery, 
were reduced to a heap of ruins — the people, who were all busily 
at work, having barely time to escape. The fire was purely 
accidental. The destruction of property had been roughly 
estimated at 100,000 to 150,000 dollars. Mr. Alcorn admitted 
that his loss would probably not be less than 70,000 dollars. 
The policy of insurance had expired only a day or two before, 
and the Governor, busy in the capital, had allowed this essential 
matter of private business a few hours' grace. He was in the 
act, indeed, of directing a renewal of the policy when the news 
of the calamity reached him. The negroes on Mr. Alcorn's 
plantation are paid by one-third the crop with rations, and he 
has a store, of course, with salesmen and clerks, and a large 
establishment in which there must be overseers, mechanics, and 
other white persons paid by salaries. I asked him whether the 
negroes, having a common property in the crop, would not bear 
with him the loss from the fire to the extent at least of one-tliird 
of the 500 bales of cotton. His reply was that, in point of legal 
right, that question would depend on whether a discharge for 
the year had taken place betwixt the planter and the negroes 
anterior to the accident. The rule was for the planters to sell 
the whole crop, and to credit one-third of the proceeds as "wages" 
to the negroes in the books ; but this might be done as soon as 
the crop was gathered, or at a later period. I understood from 
Mr. Alcorn that, having settled with his negro labourers for the 
year, the loss would fall wholly upon him, which is a strong 
corroboration of what I have more than once indicated, namely, 
that while the existing pact of capital and labour on the Southern 
cotton plantations partakes of the largest communism probably 
ever attempted in any part of the civilized world, it is not an 
adjusted system, in which the labourer shares with the planter 
the losses as well as the profits of the common enterprise. The 



2-)0 J.iCk'SOy. [on. -WW. 

negro is in one sense more, and in another sense less, than a 
partner. Desirous to have the opinion of a gentleman of praftieal 
knowledge and experience on a point on which glowing state- 
ments are usually made, I asked ^Ir. Alcorn what the average 
production of cotton on the jSIississippi "bottom" might be. 
His answer was that planters were disposed to talk of the large 
crop on their acres, but what they did grow was not so dis- 
coverable, nor when discovered was it always equal to their own 
assumed standard. Take an acre, or ten acres, of the best 
bottom land, and try by experiment what it would yicUl, the 
result, attending to nothing else, would be great — a wliole bah% 
or even more, per acre. But this was little else than theory, and 
two-thirds of a bale (of from 400 to 450 lbs.) was a very favour- 
able crop over the best plantations in "the bottom." iSome 
conversation followed on political aftairs, in which I alluded to 
what 1 had heard outside, that J\Ir. Alcorn might probably be 
the next Vice-President of the Republic. The Governor dul not 
express himself as a man enamoured of political life even in its 
most attractive guises. He had done his duty to the State of 
Mississippi ; the ofl5ce of Governor had nothing to confer upon 
him for the personal sacrifices which an efficient discharge of its 
duties involved ; and as for the Vice-Presidentship, he did not 
think the Northern people Avould consent to elect any Soutiiern 
man to so high a post in the Republic. Mr. Alcorn was probably 
somewhat depressed by his recent loss, as he might well be from 
its suddenness and magnitude, and was thinking more of the 
permanent interests of his family than of any personal ambition. 
But events must prove. Mr. Alcorn impressed me as a gentle- 
man of sincere politeness, extensive culture, and much adminis- 
trative ability. 

I did not leave the Governor without congratulating him on 
the great pains he had taken in his Message, recently delivered, 
to illustrate by statistics the moral, social, and vital condition of 
the population, and more especially of the negroes, which is a 
department of the public interest worthy of the closest attention 
in the Southern States, as elsewhere, or even more than anywi\ere 
else. Some of the facts educed in this JMessage deserve notice.' 
Mr. Alcorn, while confessing his misgivings and apprehensions 
as to some results, moral and social, of negro emancipation, is, 
nevertheless, from his full acceptance of the new order of things 
and his political responsibility, favourably disposed to the negro 
in his present state, not of personal freedom only, but of electoral 
power and privilege — more rnelined, indeed, to discover a virtue 
than to insinuate a fault, and to prophesy well than ill — a state 
of mmd that, if somewhat unique in the Southern States, only 

* Annual Message of Governor James L. Alcorn to tlie ^Mississij^pi Legis- 
tiuo, Session of 1871. 



en. XXXV.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPL 2.-)l 

auj^mients the value of his testimony. From thirty-one counties 
of Mississippi that have returned full answers to his interroga- 
tories. Governor Alcorn is enabled to state that the number of 
marriage licences issued to coloured people, which in 1805 — the 
iirst year of emancipation — was only 504, ros'; in the following 
year to 3,070, and, with the exce)>tion of 1H08, when it fell to 
2,802, has kept very near that mark ever since. The number' of 
marriage licences to negroes in 1870 was 3,427. The Governor 
considers this manifestation of adherence by tlie negroes to the 
legal formulas of marriage the more surprising, since, up to the 
close of the war, they were incapable of making a marriage 
contract, by which incapability, of course, he no doubt means an 
incapability without the consent of their owners, who mated 
them, and kejjt tlunn to their marital duty ; and, in an inversion 
of moral obligation, did for them in this respect what they 
were supposed, like children, to be unable to do or to care to 
do for themselves. It is not the le.ss gratifying that the 
negroes, when freed from all control, should have entered into the 
marriage state of their own accord at this ample rate, more 
especially as the cost of a marriage licence had been increased 
from one dollar under the old sy.stem to tlirca dollars under the 
new — a tax on virtue at the critical moment, which the Governor 
unhesitatingly and indignantly condemns — and social history 
will probably be .searched in vain for any m(»re striking proof 
that marriage and other laws, when based on nature, duty, and 
religion, command an unfailing homage from the humblest 
under.standings. The whites in these thirty-one counties of 
Mississippi do not appear to marry in nearly equal proportion to 
the blacks ; but while the superior number of mairiages may 
fairly be taken as a proof of virtue in the one case, an inferior 
number must not be pronounced a proof of lf\ss virtue or greater 
vice in the other; for, as the Governor himself hints, tlie negroes 
liad many old and bygone marriages to ratify, and the circum- 
stances since the end of the war may not have been so productive 
of that exuberance of .spirit so favourable to the married relation- 
ship in the case of the white people as of the negroes. Taking 
1870, though not a fair annual mean, the number of marriage 
licences issued to a white population of 18!J,045 was 2,204; the 
number issued to a coloured population of 239,930 was 3,427. 
In the whole six years since the war, 1805 and 1870 included, 
the number of marriage licences issued to the white people in 
thirty-one counties of Missi.ssippi was in the proportion of IGl 
per hundred, and to the coloured people in the same counties in 
the proportion of 122 per hundred per annum. Though this 
result does not convey the same iuipression as the Governor's 
^lessage, which is that of a larger number of marriage licences 
among the blacks than the whites, yet it is the same statistic, and 



252 JACKSON. [ch. xxxv. 

the only difference arises from the various ways in which figures 
may, with all integrity, be presented. I find that in the United 
Kingdom in 1869 the number of registered marriages was 
only in the proportion of 0'73 per hundred of the population, 
and so it would appear that both whites and blacks in ]\Iissis- 
sippi are going on, in the matter of marriage, much more favour- 
ably than even the " most favoured nations." Yet marriage is 
one thing, and the observance of virtue before and after marriage 
is another ; and so the Governor, in his Message, advances from 
marriages to births, and from conjugal love to its offspring in 
population. But the inquiry at this stage drops down from 
thirty-one counties to six, from which only statistics are available. 
In the six counties thus selected, the number of children born 
to white parents was in the proportion of 6-02 per hundred of 
a white population of 33,092 ; while the number of children 
born to coloured parents was as high as 7"30 per hundred of a 
coloured population of 43,748. There is no division in Missis- 
sippi statistics betwixt " legitimate" and "illegitimate" births, 
which with so much particularity gives so much pain in the old 
countries, and in this matter of births we are no doubt travelling 
more or less out of the marriage record. The number of regis- 
tered births in the United Kingdom in 1869 was in the pro- 
portion of 3-37 of the population,' which is so much less than 
the proportion of births to population in the six counties of 
Mississippi as to sink the question betwixt whites and negroes 
into comparative insignificance, and to show that as both races 
are far ahead of the old country in the proportion of marriages 
to population, they are still farther ahead in the matter of 
births. Though these results in their first impression almost 
tempt a doubt of the accuracy of the Mississippi statistics, yet 
they are probably, with defaults of statistics on both sides to be 
taken into account, not more different than might be reasonably 
expected from an old country on the one hand, and a virgin 
country on the other ; and coming back to Governor Alcorn-'s 
point of view, which is that of Mississippi i^cr se, there is no 
contest of the principle that the number of births per cent, of the 
population is a fair general test of virtue, and even on the lower 
ground of material interests is not without a strong recommenda- 
tion, seeing that there is no want in the Southern States more 
apparent than the want of population. It must be remarked of 
the South, as of other parts of America, that anxiety as to how 
to maintain children is not so notable as in the Old World, and 
that parental solicitude more usually takes the form of caring 
how the children, Avhen grown up, will choose to dispose of 

^ It may be well to state that the data here of marriages and births in the 
United Kingdom are taken from the " Statistical Abstract for the United 
Kingdom,-' Parliamentary Eoturn, 1870. 



CH. XXXV.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 253 

themselves — a problem to wliicli the very abundance of openings 
and resources for young people in this country seems to give an 
unfavourable solution. American youth do not evince quite as 
much disposition to avail themselves of their opportunities of 
a happy and successful life as the youth of countries where there 
is greater competition for places, in the world and a more anxious 
training. It is hardly to be imagined, however, that the negroes 
are, meanwhile, much controlled in their marriages and births 
by refined considerations of prudence, and therefore Governor 
Alcorn, after " a tribute of justice " to the tender nursing faculty 
of slavery, proceeds to the question of saving infant life, and 
shows, as conclusively as arithmetic can make it, from the census 
returns of the six counties, that 6'02 per cent, of white births 
giving 10'52 of white children of one to five years of age, 7"31 
of negro births ought in like proportion to give 12"89 per cent, 
of negro children of one to five years of age ; whereas the 
number of negro children of that period of life is only 11, -16 
per cent. ; the negro population thus losing in greater infant 
mortality more than it gains in greater proportion of births. 
There can be no doubt that this is the great defect in the vital 
condition of the negro under freedom. However he may propa- 
gate, he cannot preserve life as well as the white man. Yet the 
statistics adduced by Governor Alcorn in regard to negro mar- 
riages and births are encouraging, and show how idle may be 
the predictions of a speedy extinction of the black race in the 
►South. Other results in this Message are no less gratifying. 
The number of churches for a coloured population of 179,677 
has been increased from 1U5 in 1865 to 288 in 1870; the 
number of preachers employed by a coloured population of 
163,733 has increased in the same period from 73 to 263. The 
number of schools open to a coloured population of 180,527 has 
increased from 19 in 1865 to 148 in 1870 ; the number of 
teachers employed by a coloured population of 167,421 has 
increased in the same period from 18 to 170. There is thus 
proof of a wholesome activity among the negroes, since the 
abolition of slavery, in founding churches and schools and pro- 
viding the means of moral and intellectual improvement. The 
statistics of the material condition of the State are by no means 
so satisfactory, and, notwithstanding an annual progress from 
the desolation of 1865, only go to prove how much poorer and 
wilder Mississippi must be now than it was before the war. 
(^Governor Alcorn takes six counties from which returns are 
available as a basis ; but as these extend across the middle belt 
of the State, embracing bottomland, upland, ridge, and prairie — 
all varieties of soil, as well as all proportions of white and negro 
population — they may be regarded as a fair representation of the 
whole State. The value of farms in these six counties has fallen 



254 JJCKSON. [on. xxxv. 

iVoin 20,!)4(),075 dollar,-^ in 1860 to 0,415,161 dollars in 1870, 
iH'ing a decrease of G^ per cent. ; the produetiou of cotton 
from 115,81)5 to 42,880 bales of 450 lbs,— a decrease of G3 
per cent. ; of Indian corn, from o, 367, 140 to 1,150,458 bushels 
— a decrease of 05 per cent. ; while of swine there is also a 
difference betwixt the two periods of 65 per cent. Of minor 
])roducts, such as wheat, peas ifiid beans, potatoes, cheese, 
honey, and orchard fruits, the decline is still more enormous; 
and probably cotton, the quantity of which this season is much 
larger than in 1869-70, has made more progress to the ante-war 
level than any other product of the soil of IMississippi. Governor 
Alcorn finds some consolation for these melancholy figures in the 
great increase since before the war of general stores and of shoe- 
makers' and smiths' shops ; and his explanation, no doubt correct, 
is, that the breaking-up of the close system of business under 
slavery has enabled a much larger number of tradesmen, by 
serving the public instead of an individual, to establish a business 
for themselves. But the freedom which enables the negroes to 
do well in so many respects, enables them also to do ill in some 
others, and the number of dram-shops has increased greatly more 
since 1800 than the smiths' or the shoemakers'. At the same 
time there are significant indications that some of the better class 
of negroes are rising in wealth and independence. In twenty-three 
counties 40,501 bales of cotton were produced in 1809, and 50,978 
bales in 1 870, by coloured tenant-farmers. In twenty counties 
6,141 bales of cotton were produced in 1870 by coloured owners 
of the soil. 

There is a proposal afoot just now likely to attract mucli 
attention beyond as well as within the State — viz. to redeem 
the old re])udiated debt of Mississippi, amounting to 20,000,000 
dollars. Many, afraid of the jobbery with which the operation 
may be attended, and still more perhaps of the formidable addi- 
tion it would make to the taxes", shrug their shoulders at the 
mention of this scheme ; but llepudiation is happily everywhere 
felt to be so complete a bar to the credit and prosperity of a 
community, that it may not be surprising if Mississippi, following 
the example of some other defaulting States, should one day make 
a serious effort in this direction. The revenue of the State shows 
some signs of elasticity. The receipts at the Treasury in 1870 
were 1,000,092 dollars, while the disbursements were 1,061,249 
dollars, showing an almost even balance ; but the Auditor, in his 
estimate for 1871, anticipates a revenue of 1,536,500 dolhirs, and 
an oxponditurc of 1,319,626 dollars, which would give a surplus 
of 216,874 dollars. 



/ J 



CTTAPTEIl XXXVL 

The " Mississippi Bottom."— Pliiutiition at Austin. — Obstacles to Cultivation. 
[Austin, Miss.— Fc6. 24.] 

Austin is a small town with a jail and conrt-liousc, on tlic 
Mississippi River, and in the "bottom land." It was much 
knocked about during the war, the jail having been burned ; 
but the place still retains the form and semblance of" a village, 
where the steamers, on being signalled, call and take up passen- 
gers from the plantations in the nciighbonrhood. Tlie river 
at this point describes an almost circular bend, and within 
memory has greatly changed its course, leaving dry much of 
what was formerly its channel. A little farther down on tlie 
opposite bank it receives the waters of the St. Francis flow- 
ing from Lake St. Francis, in the north-eastern corner of 
Arkansas. 

The " bottom bind " of Mississippi extends from Memphis to 
Yicksburg, a length of near three hundred miles, and is about 
thirty miles deep from the river bank. Much of "the bottom " 
is traversed by an interior river system, the chief member of 
which, the Yazoo, or "River of Death," as it was called by the 
Indians in their usual picturesque way, flows over a great part 
of its course much farther in the interior of the State than tiie 
tiiirty-mile verge of the " Mississippi ]*ottom," and has many 
large tracts of rich bottom land of its own partially occupied 
and cultivated. But three-fifths of the bottom land along the 
Mississippi Eiver are not in cultivation, and cannot be cultivated 
on account of their liability to Hoods, both ordinary and extra- 
ordinary. The ordinary annual flood covers large spaces of tlie 
soil with deep water, and when it subsides and the hot sun 
begins to act on tlie slime, insects spring up in a pestiferous 
abundance that is fatal to the cotton crop. The insect life of , 
this region is amazing. Horses and oxen are often worried ' 
to death in a few hours by swarms of venomous flies ; and the 
greatest care has to be taken at certain periods of the year for 
the preservation of stock. A plantation near by was bought by 
an experienced planter attracted from his so-called "worn-out" 



256 AUSTIN. [CH. xxxvi. 

land elsewhere to the fat virgin soil of " the bottom," in 1860, 
when war was scarcely yet credible, and when he could transport 
his negro slaves along with him as a guarantee of labour. The 
price Avas 30 dollars an acre, with 300 acres cleared, a loghouse, 
and a few cabins. All the rest of the plantation was forest 
and cane-brake. The cotton-tree, oaks, hackberries, sassafras, 
and persimmon-trees prevail most in the woods. A few red deer 
are found in the forest. The cane-brake seems to grow over 
all parts of the ground not cultivated, very dense, often to a 
great height, and is the haunt of small black bears, and even 
panthers. There is a half-moon lake behind the cleared land 
called " Beaver Dam Lake," in which there may at one time 
have been beavers, but the chief inhabitants of which at present 
are swans, pelicans, and other wild birds, with probably some 
trout, and certainly a few alligators, that are occasionally seen 
plunging among the reeds in the lake or basking in the sand and 
mud of the shore. Fruit-trees flourish well when planted, but 
tliere is very little indigenous fruit ; and flowers and aromatic 
plants must be introduced and tended round the farmhouse. 
There was a great stand of cotton on this plantation in 1861, 
eight to ten feet high, but not a great crop of lint. The next 
year there was a very large crop, but the hurly-burly of armed 
men had by this time approached even Austin, and the plantation 
was rendered useless during the rest of the war. After 1865, 
the planter and his family having been driven away by chills 
and fevers, the plantation was let out at an annual rent, and 
has since been sold to an active and unencumbered man who 
is prepared, for sake of the extra fertility in cotton, to encounter 
all the difficulties of the situation. This is the general course 
of plantation-property in " tlie bottom." There are a few great 
proprietors, like Governor Alcorn, who, without residing on 
their farms, carry on the work of cultivation with vigour 
and direct responsibility ; and there are others who, being 
not so rich or independent, live on the spot, and make the 
best they can of the soil and climate; but many more have 
abandoned iheir plantations to negro and other tenants, and 
one not unfrequently finds that a planter ruined by the war 
and sold out of his homestead in some more healthy part 
of the South, while still in the prime of life, has settled in 
" the bottom " with the hope of working up a new freehold 
estate at any risk or sacrifice to himself and his family. A 
plantation in the " Mississippi bottom " is regarded by others 
in tlie light of a speculation ; and energetic men, with command 
of more or less money, throw themselves into the breach, and, 
without wholly giving up their domicile elsewhere, superintend 
their crops and operations with a home-retreat to run to as 
often as may be necessary. Too often, even in such cases, a 



CH. XXXVI.] STATE OF MISSISSIPPI. 257 

glowing account of the crop is accompanied with complaints of 
some sacrifice of health. The negroes, after two or three 
years of acclimatisiition, agree better with "the bottom" than 
white people ; but their contracts end with the year, and such 
of them as have a surplus earning take sanitary excursions 
over hundreds of miles, like their employers, and there is a 
scramble to engage the necessary number of good hands for 
the next season. With all these disadvantages, the wonderful 
agricultural productiveness of " the bottom " is beyond all 
dispute. Heavy crops of wheat come, by a little scratching of 
the soil, under trees the sap of which has been turned off by a 
scarification of the bark round the trunk in the gradual process 
of clearing. As for cotton, on the cleared ground, it is difficult 
to say when the picking season begins or ends. There is the 
tendency of all rank soil to give more stalk and fibre than 
proportionable fruit, but there is not so much fear here that bolls 
may not mature as in many other parts of the " Cotton Belt," 
and it may be said generally that in the "Mississippi bottom" 
cotton wool comes earlier and ripens to a later period than 
elsewhere. The picking season extends far into the new year, 
and at this date planters, weary or hopeless of gathering all 
their cotton, are turning cattle or sending negroes with bill- 
hooks into fields still partially white in order that they may 
prepare the next crop. 

The reclamation of the "bottom land" in Mississippi is a 
work of time, and the efforts made, in the spirit of American 
adventure, will render it by successive stages much more 
habitable than it is at present. Yet one must look at existing 
conditions, and, in the light of these, it must be owned that the 
superior productiveness per acre of such regions as this is 
attended with some formidable disadvantages. One often hears 
of the " sharp intelligent countenances " of the American people, 
and the mass of Americans have that superior kind of aspect. 
But a large proportion of the faces one sees in these parts, with 
all the " sharp intelligence " desirable, seem intellectualized not 
a little by heat and sickness, and sharpened by hardship and 
suffering. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ProErress of Memphis. — Receipts of Cotton. — Buying on Spinners' Orders. — 
Through Bills of Lading. — Import of Foreign Goods at Memphis.^Politics 
and Railways of Arkansas. — ExtensiA^e River Communications. — Definition 
of " the Cotton Belt." — Banking and Insurance Capital. — Jeiferson Davis. 
— The Southern Presbyterians and the Free Chiu'ch of Scotland. 

[Memphis, Tenn.— i^e&. 25-30.] 

Anyone whose impression of Memphis has "been formed from 
the accounts of its condition at the close of the war, would be 
agreeably surprised by its present well-built, well-paved, and 
comfortable condition. The city, from its high bluff on the 
Mississippi, overlooks the surrounding country, embracing great 
parts of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Its local lines 
of river steamers, carrying upwards of 10,000 tons, not only 
conduct a regular traffic with the plantations on the Mississippi, 
but, ascending the branch rivers, penetrate into the interior west- 
ward over distances as great as many sea voyages. Its railway 
connections are also very advantageous, placing it on all the 
great routes north and eastward ; but, not satisfied with present 
attainments in this respect, Memphis is as strongly moved by 
the enterprise of opening new lines of railway as other Southern 
towns. It is pushing to get down direct by rail on the mineral 
region of Alabama ; to shorten its communications with Savan- 
nah, Charleston, and Norfolk ; and the question as to the future 
Atlantic seaport imt excellence has been as keenly canvassed here 
as in other great cotton centres of the Southern interior. The 
Chamber of Commerce has come to the conclusion that Port 
Poyal, an embryo port in South Carolina betwixt Charleston 
and Savannah, may be the destined " gateway of Memphis to 
the sea," because the distance is only 728 miles, as against 959 
from Memphis to Norfolk in Virginia, and may be reduced by a 
projected siiort-cut betwixt Atlanta and Decatur to 658 miles in 
all ; and so the Chamber looks with favour on the line working 
along from Port Royal in the lowlands of Carolina to Augusta 
in Georgia. While thus glancing eagerly and far into the future 
eastward, Memphis is not unmindful of the great country behind 
it to the West, from which it draws immediate support, and 



en. xxxvii.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 259 

which is bound from year to year to swell its prosperity and 
raise it ultimately into one of the great cities of the American 
continent. A line is now open from Memphis to Little Ilock, 
the capital of Arkansas, and others are projected through that 
State to Fulton on the borders of Texas, and to Fort Smith 
in the Indian territory. That there is a rich harvest to be 
gathered by Memphis from the gradual development of the great 
agricultural resources of Arkansas is already seen in the rapid 
progress of the city. Its population, which was 22,623 in 1860, 
is now given at 40,230 by the census taken last summer, when 
a large number of the inhabitants were absent. Tlie probability 
is that the population of Memphis has fully doubled in ten years 
\, five of these being years of war and devastation — and has 
tlius made good an increase of inhabitants which has nowhere 
been surpassed, if equalled. 

The total receipts of cotton at Memphis in the season 1869-70 
were 290,737 bales. The receipts already this season have been 
386,149 bales. The receipts at same date last year Avere 
212,818 bales, showing an increase this year of no less than 81 
per cent, Avhich is greatly more in proportion than the total 
increase of receipts at the United States ports this year as 
compared with last — the figures being, total receipts this year, to 
Feb. 25th, 2,786,149 bales, and last year to same date 2,113,533 
bales, an increase of 32 per cent. The total increase of cotton 
at United States ports at this date being 672,616 bales, and 
tlie total increase at Memphis 173,331 bales, the consequence 
is that Memphis has above 25 per cent, at this time of the whole 
increase on last year at all the great outlets of cotton.-^ This 
result speaks favourably, in the tirst place, of the increased 
production of cotton on the Mississippi Eiver, in the State of 
Arkansas, and the Tennesseean and other districts round Mem- 
phis ; and, in the second place, of the energy and advantage for 
sellers and buyers with which the market here is conducted. 
The classification of cotton in Memphis is the same as in New 
Orleans — the two markets being supplied from almost precisely 
the same varieties of soil and climate — but the Liverpool standard 
is the prevailing basis of transactions. The cotton of Mempliis, 
till within the last two or three years, was almost wholly sent 
to the Atlantic seaports to be there resold ; but the establishment 

1 It is hardly necessary to exhibit statistical results, which will appear more 
properly at the end of the season through all the ordinary channels of intelli- 
gence. But it may be worth while to state the percentages of increased 
receipts of cotton, so fixr as developed, at all the ports, as a passing landmark. 
They are as follow : — Texan, 2 per cent. ; New Orleans, 16 ; Mobile, 24 ; 
North Carolina, 41 ; Vii'ginia, 43^ ; Charleston, 48 ; Savannah, 52 ; Mempliis, 
81 ; other ports, 9 per cent. At New York the increase is 7fi per cent., but 
as the New York receipts pass through, and are mostly recorded in, the 
Southern ports, they do not enter essentially into this comparison. 

s 2 



260 MEMPHIS. [en. xxxvii. 

of throwjli bills of lading by the various railroad companies in 
connection with the ocean steamship lines from New York has 
introduced a new mode of business, which promises to have 
important results. The present freight rate of through bills of ■ 
lading is seven-eighths of a penny per lb. of cotton from Memphis 
to Liverpool. Insurance for the whole route is also effected in - 
one transaction with the English companies at three-fourths per , 
cent. ; so that a spinner or merchant in England can buy in 
Memphis at first hand from the producer, with all the selection 
of grades the m.arket affords, and have the cotton delivered to 
him in Liverpool by rail and steamship within three or four 
weeks of the purchase, not only with advantages of freight, but 
without the cotton being handled, tared, or stolen at any inter- 
mediate point, and with no more than one series of necessary com- 
mission charges — viz., at the place of purchase. The advantage of 
this mode of business has been found considerable enough to be 
now giving it some play; and having heard the cry of the planters 
in Mississippi for more direct relations with the spinners, I can 
scarcely conceive how, in present circumstances, this object can, 
with equal benefit to producer and consumer, be better realized. 
Memphis, as the greatest inland mart of cotton, has been the 
first to feel the force of this movement, but there is no reason 
why at any point amidst the plantations, with means of transit, 
the same class of operations may not be carried out. One or 
two of the cotton brokers in Memphis began, after the war, to 
turn their attention to the execution of direct orders from Liverpool ; 
and so contagious is a good example, that already, I am told, one- 
third of all the cotton business in Memphis is done on this principle. 
The telegraph gives the buyer in England the power of controlling 
his orders, reducing or extending his margin, or closing it up, 
and regulating his shipment of cotton per week or month, in the 
nicest ada])tation to his views of the course of the market or to 
his manufacturing wants. It is gratifying to find such proofs of 
closer commercial relationship betwixt parties working to each 
other at such vast distances; and yet, beneficial as this directness 
of trade betwixt the planter and spinner must be in the matter 
of cotton, there is not less ground of rejoicing in the smaller fact 
at present as estimated by dollars, that Memphis, availing itself 
of an Act of Congress by which it has been made a port of 
entry, and under rather hard conditions of inland transit, may 
pay its own import duties on the spot, instead of in New York 
or Boston, has in the year ending 30th June last paid 41,140 
dollars in duties on European goods imported direct to the order 
of its own merchants. The cotton growers may rely that, sub- 
stantial as the advantage may be of a more direct disposal of 
their product to the manufacturers of Europe, it is not a hun- 
dredth fraction of the advantage which would accrue if the laws 



en. xxxvii.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 261 

of the United States allowed to Europe anything like equal 
liberty of paying them its products in return, which products, as 
measured in the exchanges of the two continents, are in reality, 
whatever the laws of the United States may enact or prescribe, 
the price of cotton to them. The fact that Memphis, notwith- 
standing the severity of the tariff and the restrictions witli 
which the removal of goods in bond to inland ports of entry is 
accompanied,^ should have paid so much as 41,140 dollars of 
Customs duties in the past year, is no insignificant proof of the 
mercantile spirit and enterprise of the city ; and if so much has 
been done under existing difficulties at Memphis, it becomes the 
more obvious how greatly a free exchange would increase the 
volume of trade with the Old World, how much larger and better 
value the United States would receive for its exported produce, 
and what a healthy and invigorating influence would be exerted 
on American industry and manufactures to the farthest limits of 
the Union. 

The politics of Arkansas would appear, from an extraordinary 
struggle going on at Little Rock for possession of the governor- 
ship, to be in one of those tumults which are too frequent 
under universal negro suffrage. Governor Clayton, who has been 
elected one of the Senators of the State in Congi'ess, and is 
willing to go to Washington, should lay down the one office 
before entering upon the other, but refuses to do so because his 
lawful successor in the governorship, while one of his own party, 
has of late been somewhat too independent, and is not likely to 
continue with due succession the Clayton dynasty and rule. 
The partisans on both sides are greatly excited, threatening 
armed force against each other ; and, reading the Little Rock 
newspapers, one would conclude that the capital of Arkansas 
must inevitably be drowned in blood. But these political frays 
seldom fulfil either their threats or their promises, and the crisis 
will probably end in some trick or intrigue that will raise a 
hearty laugh on one side or the other. Memphis looks with 
deep interest on the wide and fertile State over against it on the 
west bank ©f the Mississippi, of which it is the gate to the East ; 
and, notwithstanding the unsatisfactory condition of government 
in Arkansas, the increasing production of the State is annually 
conferring on Memphis increasing advantages. A stream of white 
emigrants, though chiefly from other cotton States, is slowly 
occupying its richer lands ; the cotton of Arkansas comes in 
larger quantity and of superior quality to market ; and whatever 

^ The new warehousing regulations require, among other provisions, that 
goods in bond conveyed to inland towns named be conveyed in cars of iron, 
that the cars be doubly locked, that they be locked by a particular patent 
lock, and that they be under the constant inspection of officers appointed for 
the purpose. 



262 MEMPHIS. . [cii. xxxvii. 

present difficulties may be, there is that confidence in the future, 
i)uoying the American cominunity more than any otlicr in tlie 
world, which, however hIow and elusory in its particular realiza- 
tion, has in tJic acr.^'rogatc lines of history and experience all the 
assurance and stability of destiny. There is a general testimony 
as to the fertility of the lands along the rivers in Arkansas. 
Until the projected lines of railway are completed, the State will 
labour imder no common difficulties of transit. In the mean- 
while, the rivers are the chief means of communication, and the 
extent to which steam-vessels thread the narrow and sinuous 
channels of this inland navigation is wonderful enough, in some 
of its most general facts, to be worthy of record. Steamboats 
regularly leave Memphis to the mouth of White Eiver, down the 
]\rississippi, and thcnceascendlojacksonport, which is 700 miles 
by this waterway from Memphis, while the distance overland, 
by "air-line," from Memphis to Jacksonport is only 75 miles. J 
Some of the boats on the White Kivcr go to Pocahontas, 150 ) 
miles farther than Jacksonport, and within 15 miles of the ( 
Missouri line, or only 85 miles overland from Memphis. But \ 
the navigation of the Upper White River above Jacksonport 
is only practicable at irregular seasons. Though the railway • 
from Mem])hi.s to Little liock is now open, steamboats continue to 
make trips from Memphis to Little Ivock by the Arkansas Liver in 
six tlays, and this line of navigation is pursued from Little Ivock by 
the Arkansas lliver as far as Fort Gibson intheLidian territory. 
But this is not all. Fifty miles south from Little lioek, and 200 
miles from Memphis, Is Archidcl])hia on the Washita (Ouachita) 
Liver, which joins with the lied Liver away down in Louisiana 
])efore the confluence of the latter with the Mississippi, and is 
thus more within the navigable sphere of New Orleans than of 
iVIemphis. Steainboats, carrying 2,000 to 3,000 bales of cotton, 
penetrate from New Orleans by the lied lliver to Camden on 
the Washita in Arkansas, 700 miles; and at Camden other boats 
of lighter draft, carrying 400 to 500 bales of cotton, go up and 
down the Washita to Archidelphia, which is but 55 miles from 
Little Lock, Avhere there is an "air-line" railroad to Mem])his. 
'I'his is oidy an Arkansas branch of the New Orleans river 
steam navigation. Pursuing the main Led lliver channel, the 
New Orleans boats traverse a distance of 1,100 miles. Fulton 
in Arkansas is the general head of navigation on lied Hivcr, 
but the steamers, by getting round through the bayous a raft 
formed by drift timber in the upper waters, occasionally reach 
still m.ore distant points. All the prinei|)al branches of lied 
lliver, such as l^artliolomew, Saline, and Mason bayous, are also 
regularly visited by boats fi'om New Orleans. Cotton bears a 
freight over this vast river route of sometimes eleven dollars a 
bale. The steamers, indeed, passing as they do along the rivers 



en. XXXVII.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 263 

where the farms and plantations mostly arc, perform a minute 
service of traffic an convenience wliicli railways themselves, 
Jiowever important, re not so able to discharge. The masters 
of river steamers ono meets with at Memphis and New Orleans 
are generally men of fine disposition and of great intelligence, 
social and agreeable to strangers, and liking notliing better than 
to see and be useful to families of European settlers. 

At tliis point one may take a glance,, by way of definition, 
at the " Cotton Belt " of the Soutliern States. Memphis is a 
little north of the line of 35 deg. ; it is nearly a whole degree 
nortli of Wilmington in North Carolina, and it is in North 
Carolina, with the exception of some border counties of Virginia, 
where one travelling South first comes on flourishing fields of 
cotton. Memphis, therefore, albeit from its situation on the rich 
bottom lands of Mississippi and Arkansas one might fancy 
differently without looking at the map, is veiy near the northern 
limit of the cotton region, which is usually held to be 35| deg., 
while its southern limit is now recognized to be 31 deg., or, to 
take a local point, say the mouth of the Red River. Though 
the cultivation of cotton may not be strictly confined to precise 
lines of latitude, yet there are natural causes which tend to hold 
it within these limits, lieyond the northern limit of 35^ deg. 
short seasons and early frosts are apt to rob the crop of the means 
of full maturity; while below the southern limit of 31 deg. its 
liability to be devoured by worm and rot is no less adverse to its 
successful culture. Tlie slow result of experience, indeed, has 
been to reduce the southern limit of the cotton belt greatly more 
than the northern limit. There was a time when, under the 
prevailing impression that longer seasons, more and more sun, 
and absence of frost, were the all-essential conditions of the 
cotton plant, Natchez, or about the line of 32 deg., was deemed 
the centre of the American cotton belt, but few would probably 
now venture to place the centre line farther south than the mouth 
of the Arkansas River, or 34 deg. On the southern limit cotton 
comes into rivalry with the sugar-cane, whereas on the northern 
limit it has only the production of northern climes to contend 
with ; and it seems true of cotton as of w^heat and other products 
of the soil, that they yield as well Avith necessary care on their 
northern verge as on any other part of their congenial space. 
Hence cotton clings much more closely and steadfastly to its 
technical northern limit, and beyond it, than to its southern limit, 
which is so far a diminishing quantity ; till passing the equator 
line, in South America, a new and reverse series of natural con- 
ditions come into operation. The product of cotton in the southern 
latitudes of Texas does not present in these days any result 
approaching to the expansion in North Carolina, or even Virginia. 

The total capital of the "National" and other banks in 



264 MEilPHIS. [cu. xxxvii. 

Memphis is 1,700,781 dollars, which is a small amount in 
proportion to the commercial interests of the city, but does not 
compare so badly as in other Southern cities with the banking 
capital before the war. The bank capital of Memphis in 18t>0 
was given in round numbers at 2,000,000. The bank deposits are 
2,226,919 dollars, being considerably less than the proportion of 
deposits to banking capital in Xew Orleans. The native lire 
and life insurance companies, which in Memphis have a total 
capital of three millions of dollar's, employ their funds in various 
modes which practically relieve the pressure upon the banks, and 
help out a deticiency of banking means which would otherwise 
be severely felt. The fire and life insurance companies es- 
tablished since the war are usually prosperous. The stock of 
the Planters' Company, a fire otfice established eighteen months 
ago, is at 15 per cent, premium, and the dividends have been 50 
per cent, on the money paid up. This company lends on various 
classes of security at one per cent, a month. Though divi- 
dends of this amount are only too good, yet a large portion 
of the savings of the community is likely to be invested in 
insiurance companies in the South, where the operations of foreign 
companies are extensive. The capital of foreign life companies 
represented at Memphis is 73 millions, and of foreign fire 
companies 41 millions of dollars. 

Mr, Jefterson Davis, who is at the head of one of the large 
American insurance companies, lives very quietly here in the 
Peabody Hotel, and, save when the negroes get a hold of him in 
the sti-eet or on the landing-stage at the river, and make him the 
object of an ovation, is seldom heard of in public. The popu- 
larity of Mr. Da\'is among the negroes is a fact whicli cannot 
be easily explained, and in Abolition circles would probably not 
be readily understood if it could. There is much peace and good 
feeling in Memphis among all classes of the population. No 
fewer than five daily nevvspapers are published in the city, and, 
judging from the well-organized staff of the Avalanche, must be 
well qualified to inform and enlighten the community. Among 
the novelties of manufacture, one of the two gas companies of 
the town supplies yasoUnc nuxde by vaporisation from the mineral 
oil of Pennsylvania, and giving as pure and bright a light as 
the best cannel coal gas. I'he fame of this experiment has 
spread so far as to bring a deputation all the way from ^lilwaukee 
on Lake Michigan, who are much pleased with the result. But 
the second gas company of Memphis, who look askance on 
gasoline, say that with coals at 75 cents a barrel, and the high 
price got for the cinders and tar, there is little margin of economy. 
Either way, I daresay, gas supply is a profitable business in the 
Southern towns. The price of gas to the consumer is four to 
five dollars per thousand cubic feet. 



cii. XXXVII.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 265 

I attended divine service in tlie Second Presbyterian Church 
of Memphis on the Sunday, as it liappened to be, before Com- 
munion. The minister, Mr. Boggs, at the close of the services, 
liaving occasion to urge the claims of the Sustentation Fund of the 
Southern Presbyterian Church, remarked that it was founded on 
the model of the Sustentation Fund of the Free Church of Scotland, 
which, with much eulogy of Dr. Chalmers and the Free Church', 
he finally declared to have been contributed by " ilte 'poorest classes 
of that poorest of all countries, Scotland^ I do not know how, 
though flattering to them in one sense, the thrifty and wealthy 
people north the Tweed may be disposed to receive such a com- 
pliment. There was a time, in the days of L)r. Samuel Johnson 
perhaps, or probably earlier, when Scotland, in working out the 
redemption of Protestant Europe, and laying on the common 
altar a great deal more than her reasonable share, might have 
been pronounced a comparatively poor country among the 
countries of Europe. But all this has passed away, and it 
sounds strange in European ears to hear the richest people, head 
by head, in tlie world — America not excluded — proclaimed from 
the pulpit the poorest of all peoples, and the Free Church, the 
" Hero Church " of the Scotch, tlie poorest of this poor. The 
truth is, I believe that there is little or no communion betwixt 
the Presbyterians of Scotland and the Presbyterians of the 
Southern States. The Southern Presbyterians complain that, 
under some unaccountable monopoly of disposition in favour of 
the Northern Presbyterian Church, they are deliberately excluded 
from correspondence and representation in the General Assemblies 
of the parent Ciiurches in Scotland, which, if true (as I have 
no doubt ii is), appears, without any further explanation, to 
balance the account, and to reveal that the Free Cliurch of 
Scotland is yjrobably about as imperfect in knowledge of Pres- 
bytcrianism in America as any Southern Presbyterian ministers 
may be of the material condition of the Scotch people. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

West and ]\Iiclflle Tennessee. — Backwardness of Rural Labour. — Proportion of 
Corn and Cotton Crops. — Spring like " Glorious Summer." — Necessity of 
an approved Rotation of Crops in the Cotton States. — Similarity of 
Cotton and Turnip Husbandry. — City of Nashville. — Disorder of the State 
Finances. — Farming in Tennessee. — Fallacy in the question of Free v. 
Slave Labour. — Conclusions as to the Pi'ospects of Cotton Culture. 

[Nashville, Tenn. — March 1-15.] 

The citizens of Memphis who love to have a country house, going 
to and from town by rail for business, have built residences along 
both sides of the Memphis and Charleston road, several miles 
out from the city, on fine dry sites, with well-kept gardens and 
lawns, and amidst much pretty sylvan scenery. On leaving 
these environs the train passes into the ordinary American land- 
scape, with wild forest roughness as its principal characteristic. 
But in West and Middle Tennessee there is a large amount of 
agricultural industry, and the nearer one approaches Nashville 
the country becomes more fine and cultivated. Maury County, in 
the middle region of the State, is probably unsurpassed in the 
beauty of its scenery and the variety of its agricultural products. 
Grass, more natural than farther south, is more cared for ; stock 
is more abundant ; and broad fields of clover and winter wheat, 
the latter sown in the fall on the Indian corn-fields of the previous 
year, clothe the soil with brilliant verdure. But at this point 
north, one is passing rapidly out of the " Cotton Belt ; " and along 
the southern Tennessee border line, where cotton and Indian corn 
are the sole agricultural staples, there is more natural roughness 
and absence of busy rural life at this period of the year than in 
more northern parts of the State. 

Over a hundred miles of such country only one plough, a single- 
horse, was seen at work, and the corn and cotton fields lay as 
they had been at the close of last year. There is a hesitation on 
the part of planters as to what to do this season, how many hands 
to engage, and what proportions of the two great crops to plant. 
There will be less cotton and more corn, if the resolutions passed 
from mouth to mouth can be trusted. A very common proportion 
of tlie two crops last year on tlie larger plantations was two-thirds 



CH. xxxvm.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 267 

cotton and one-tliird corn — a proportion that, when the price of 
cotton is higher relatively than corn, is profitable owing to the 
abundance and cheapness with which corn is usually supplied 
from the North-Western farms, but, when the price of cotton is 
low, and the needful " staff of life " from other States has to be 
paid for in cash which the cotton proceeds do not yield, is un- 
economical and insupportable. There will be a change this year 
to at least one-half corn and one-half cotton, save on small farms, 
where the proportion of corn was probably at no time lower than 
one-half But the slowness in preparing the land for either one 
crop or other is remarkable. The cotton plant may not be ad- 
vanced by early sowing, since heavy falls of rain or sudden blasts 
of cold w^ind may be injurious to a too early growth ; but the 
preparation of the soil is another matter, and if the fields had 
been well ploughed even before the keen frost of last winter, it 
were contrary to all experience not to find them greatly improved 
by the process in the destruction of insects, and in their refinement 
and invigoration by the atmosphere. The weather along the 
northern limit of the cotton region in early JMarch is what one 
may call " magnificent spring ; '' and yet this euphuism may fail 
to convey an adequate conce])tion of its favourableness for agri- 
culture to many whose experience of spring has been confined to 
more northern climes. Spring in the South is " glorious summer," 
with occasional brief but heavy falls of rain that flood the creeks 
and swell the great rivers, and tornado-like winds that sweep 
along a narrow space in breadth, but over great distance in length. 
Helena in Arkansas and Pocahontas on the northern border of 
Mississippi appear to have been blown down in one night by a 
wind which at Memphis was scarcely perceptible. Yet these are 
but incidental phenomena, and Nature is now bursting forthwith 
copious energy. The peach-trees, rushing into fruit before they 
have put forth their leaves, are in full bloom, and the wild plums 
along the country roads and in clumps in the fields are covered 
with cream-coloured blossoms as thick as English hawthorn in 
May. The vines are warping themselves with new life round 
the fences and up the stems of the sassafras and thorn trees, while 
the winter-reft and winter-soiled edges of the forest, splashed in 
colour as with the clayey mud of the ditches, become more bright 
every day, the brilliant light green of the willows in particular 
touching the landscape U'ith hues of Eden. The transparency of 
the atmosphere probably moves one more than all — an effluence 
of ether in which the wing of a gnat is visible to the eye, and the 
gay blue or scarlet plumage of the shyish birds, as they fly into 
the recesses of the woods, or flutter in the air, is more flashing 
and more exquisite than the silken coquetry of a drawing-room. 
This, as one walks or rides along amidst the deep silence of these 
parts, without heat or glare of sun anywise oppressive, and witli 



268 NASHVILLE. [ch. xxxvni, 

an exliilaration of lung and spirit, imbibing only what Nature 
shows and gives, is a source of felicitous sensation which one 
would rather not attempt to analyse or describe. 

To do for farming in the Cotton tStates of the South, under 
negro emancipation, what rotation and green-cropping have done 
for farming in England and Scotland under free trade — to give 
it some regular plan or order of cultivation fitted to develop all 
the best qualities of the soil, and to attain the great ends of per- 
manent profit and improvement — is an object now of the first 
importance, alike to the good of the Southern country and to the 
future of cotton supply. Tlie old system of corn and cotton for 
ever on the same tields in uncertain proportions can no longer 
suffice to give a stable interest to the land ; and if a large area ' 
and low price of cotton one year are to be followed by a small 
area and high price the next, and gambling in the cotton-market 
is to be complicated by gambUng in the growth of the staple, a 
most unfavourable blow will be given to cotton manufactures 
throughout the world. It Avas the property in slaves that gave 
to the Southern plantations permanence of value and regularity 
of crop before the war : the substance that a British farmer 
possesses in his sheep and cattle, and that remains behind what- 
ever reverses of yield or price may befall the crops of a year, the 
Southern planter had in his negroes ; but this property in human 
beings having now been swept away, the cotton farmers of the 
South must seek to fill up the gap by live stock of another kind, ■ 
and stock-raising and stock-feeding imply much variety of culture, ' 
and may be said, indeed, to open an entirely new agrieultui^l 
problem in the Southern States. One sees, though rarely, a 
small fiock of whitetaced sheep or merinoes on the cotton planta- 
tions, but usually lean, and Avith few lambs in proportion to the 
flock. The heat of summer spreads a desolation over grass which 
it does not speedily recover, and the want of moisture is un- 
favourable to turnip culture. But the fertility of clover, and the 
small modicum of care and labour by which the tender blades of 
rye or barley are brought away in abundance all winter and 
spring, seem to cover much other defect, and to aff'ord means of 
nutritious feeding to sheep and cows. On asking a gentleman, i 
who has nuxdc Southern agriculture a life-long practical study,^ 
what crop there is or may be to occupy the same place in a sys- 
tem of rotation in the South as turnip culture in England, I was 
agreeably surprised by his reply, that cotton is the counterpart of 
green crops in England, seeing that it requires the same careful 
preparation of the soil, the same weeding and hoeing, subserves 
the same purpose of cleaning the land, and is the point in rotation 
where manure may be profitably applied. The idea was so sug- 

' Colonel Saunders, North ALibaiua. See note p. 127. 



en. xxxviii.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 269 

gestive, and so obviously apposite, that I asked furtlier wliat his 
rotation would be, and to this question his answer was — " Two 
years of clover, one of Indian corn, one of wheat or other small 
grain, and one of cotton." It would follow from this arrangement 
that one-fourth of the ploughed land on a plantation would be in 
cotton, instead of two-tliirds or one-half; that the yield of cotton 
per acre would be so much greater as to render the smaller area 
nearly equal in productive power to the larger ; and tliat the 
market price of cotton, seeing that the planter had various sources 
of return, would be less trying and fateful than it is, and the 
supply more regular and assured than it can be, under the present 
system of flighty and fluctuating adventure. Changes of this 
magnitude, amounting to revolution, in agriculture, and mixed 
up in the Southern States with difficulties of labour greater than 
in most other parts, are only slowly accomplished. Buttliat men 
of intelligence, with interests in the soil, should approve and 
conclude on some line of action having the promise of lasting 
prosperity and improvement, is fraught, in the present circum- 
stances of the South, with unusual importance. 

A commanding view is obtained from tlie State House here 
of the surrounding country, witli the Cumberland Kiver sweeping 
round the city. People are still living who came to Nashville 
when it was only an advanced post in the wilderness, with a 
change house and a store or two. It is now a large and 
prosperous town. The inhabitants tell of the rejoicing that 
took place when the boat made the trip to New Orleans in 
ninety days; but the captain, in returning thanks for tlie compli- 
ment paid him on that occasion, said the time would come when 
the trip would be done in as many hours ; and the prophecy has 
been about fulfilled. 

The dictatorship of Parson Brownlow, who was Governor of 
Tennessee during, and for some time after, the war, has passed 
away like a nightmare. Mr. Senter, the present Governor — a 
liepublican, but a prudent and temperate man — will be suc- 
ceeded tliis year by Mr. Brown, a Democrat. Until within the 
last six months not more than one white man in five had a vote 
in Tennessee. The result of the restoration of the respectable 
inhabitants to their political rights is a complete change in tlie 
State administration. The Secretary of State was an officer in the 
Confederate army ; the Comptroller of the Treasury was also a 
Confederate ; and — as an old citizen of Nashville, of the same 
side of politics, said to me, when ascending the steps of the 
Capitol, with all the corrupt and teiTorising rule of past years in 
his memory — " We are now getting up-stairs pretty well at 
last " seems to be the general feeling of the white people of 
Tennessee. Among otlier forms of misrule, the Brownlowites 
threw the finances of the State into utter disorder. State bonds 



270 NASHFILLE. [cii. xxxviii. 

and State endorsations of bonds were issued with a lavish hand, 
and voted away in some cases to persons and corporations 
unworthy of confidence. In one instance bonds to the amount 
of two millions of dollars were issued for a railway in the 
eastern section of the State, not a mile of which has been made, 
and the money, so far as realized from the bonds, has been 
embezzled and squandered. Some idea of the corruption that 
prevailed, and of the dishonest persons who got into public 
office and trust, may be formed from the statement of the 
Comptroller of the Treasury in his report dated December 1870, 
that the collected taxes in the hands of defaulting and delinquent 
tax-collectors amount to 1,283,115 dollars, and that the trouble 
of getting them out of the hands of collectors is not less than 
that of getting them fairly assessed and levied from the tax- 
payers. Much of the public revenue thus intercepted " is held 
for private speculation by collectors and their sureties." Nor 
are the assessors any better than the collectors. The Comptroller 
declares three-fourths of them to be utterly incompetent. The 
tax rolls exhibit the most scandalous exemptions and under- 
valuations. The real estate of Davidson County, while set down 
in the United States Marshal's books at over 22,000,000 dollars, 
appears in the State books for only 8,000,000. The Comptroller 
insists on a cure of all these evils, and on an assessment of 75 
cents per hundred dollars of real estate, which even on the 
valuation of 1870 — 252,882,87-4 dollars — would bring in near 
two millions to the Treasury. Though the disorder left by the 
Hadicals is great, and to cleanse their Augean stable would seem 
to require the might of a Hercules, yet the process of reform has 
begun — the State Government is reducing the State debt, and 
would ere now have been resuming the payment of interest but 
for the necessity of first redeeming the circulation of the Bank 
of Tennessee. The total debt of the State — chiefly railroad and 
turnpike debt — is 38,539,802 dollars ; but from this amou t has 
to be deducted the resources of the railroads, many beir /sub- 
stantial and prosperous concerns, and some already in rocess 
of retiring their bonds — the estimate of which resources available 
to the reduction of the debt is 21,982,844 dollars. Though the 
new Legislature is a great improvement on its recent predecessors, 
yet tlie railway interest is largely represented in it, and there 
may be some little danger that this influence may be exerted to 
impede the measures necessary to restore the credit of the State. 
But it is gratifying to see the spirit of honour by which the new 
Governments rising in the South are actuated, and the determi- 
nation evinced, alike by the Executives and the Legislatures, to 
maintain the strictest economy and good faith in the finances. 

Nashville enjoys, what is rare in many parts of the United 
States, an abundance of hard stone. Stratified limestone, of a 



CH. xxxviii.J STATE OF TENNESSEE. 271 

bluish-grey colour, is plentiful under tlie site of the town, and in 
elevated bluffs around it. The State Capitol — an imposing 
edifice of the Ionic order — is built of stone quarried on the spot, 
and with paved streets in the city there are good macadamized 
roads in the environs. Round the base of the Capitol numerous 
squads of convicts from the penitentiary, mostly negroes, clothed 
in a common dress of striped stuff, are employed in breaking 
stones, making new roads, and other hard labour, with men 
armed with loaded guns on guard at the various points of exit 
from the place of work. The chance of escape is small, and 
the convicts, nearly all stout young fellows, apply themselves 
to their task with a commendable spirit of diligence and 
resignation. 

The farmers of Tennessee have gone more extensively into 
the culture of cotton under the stimulus of high prices than was 
probably prudent, and Nashville of late years has been a brisk 
cotton market. The reduction of price this season will send 
many of the growers back to grain and stock, for which the soil 
and climate are well qualified. Yet the cultivators of the soil 
in Tennessee, as in other parts of America not supremely adapted 
by nature to the growth of any peculiar product for which 
there is a great demand in foreign markets, have difficulty in 
apportioning their crops, and are always ready to introduce or ex- 
tend whatever promises a better return. The Tennesseean farmers 
began some time ago to grow broom-corn — a wnld grass of great 
length and tenacity of fibre, requiring a strong soil, of which house 
brooms, very neatly got up, are made — and found it profitable 
a year or two, while there were comparatively few growers. But 
this season there has been an over-s tpply of broom-corn, and the 
price has fallen below the remunerative point. The circumstances 
cannot be much different in the great agricultural regions of 
the West, where wheat grows luxuriantly, but grows luxuriantly 
in so many other vast spaces of the globe that in meeting the 
changes of the foreign market and the expenses of transportation 
it often yields to the Western farmer only a petty return. The 
superabundance of land in America, and the ease with which, 
under its now advanced stage of occupation, any ordinary pro- 
duct may be supplied beyond the limits of profit, form the great 
difficulty of agriculture in the United States ; and the British 
farmer, with a rent to pay, but with a demand round his steading 
for everything he produces always in excess of his supply, 
labours under but a milder form of the evil which besets the 
American farmer, with tlie soil his own or given to him for 
nothing, yet forced to look to distant countries for a market for 
his staple produce, and uncertain whether he wall find one that 
will repay him anywhere. The cultivation of the soil in the 
United States has thus a much more speculative character than 



272 NASTiriLLE. [ch. xxxviii. 

in Europe ; and as the American farmer is not content by 
liard manual labour to earn a rough livelihood only, but seeks to 
grow richer as he works on, there is more changing from one 
system of crops and from one tract of land to another than, and 
probably quite as much dissatisfaction in the result as, in most 
other countries. 

In the cotton region, with tlie exception of a certain stead- 
fastness imparted by the staple produce, there is a full share of 
the uncertainty and indetcrminatcness that mark tlie general 
condition of American agriculture, together with some unsolved 
perplexities of its own. There is a competition betwixt " ex- 
hausted " land and new land, and betwixt the poorer soils of the 
Atlantic slope and the richer bottom soils of the West, inviting 
change and migration, and discouraging improvement in many 
tine parts of tlie country wliere cotton has long been produced. 
Tlie system of labour presents some singular anomalies — par- 
taking, on the one hand, of a communism extended to the negro 
freedman in the despair that followed the war, and a pauper 
dependence, on the otlicr, that belonged to the freedman when 
he was a slave — and cannot be said to be yet established on any 
settled basis. And more remarkable than all, because exhibited 
in juxtaposition on the same tracts of country as well as fraught 
with much weight of practical result in the future, is the compe- 
tition that has arisen betwixt the larger plantations, on wliich 
the negroes are chiefly employed, and the smaller farms culti- 
vated by white people under their own hands, with as little 
negro labour as possible. This feature of cotton planting in the 
South is at present conspicuous ; for I hold it, from obser- 
vation as well as testimony, to be certain that the larger propor- 
tion of the annual expansions of the cotton crop since the war is 
due to the energy, on small farms, in gardens, and in crops taken 
on waste and unoccupied plantations, of white labour. Some 
few of the negroes no doubt contribute independently to this 
small-farm movement ; but the ad cajjtandum mode of arguing 
the superior efficiency of free negro labour — viz. that so many 
negroes perished in the war, that negro women do not now work 
in the field, that negro children are put to school, and that never- 
theless the crop being all but equal to what it was under slavery, it 
follows that the negi'oesfree must produce greatly better than when 
slaves — is superficial, and does not touch the substantial merits 
of the question. It does not embrace the fact that scarcely any 
of the plantations on which cotton was grown under slavery are 
nearly up to the mark of production before the war ; and it 
leaves out of view the great number of small white farmers who, 
under the disability of the former growers, have begun for the first 
time to raise cotton, the numerous bands of white labourers who 
have availed themselves of the abundant opportunities of renting 



CH. XXXVIII.] STATE OF TENNESSEE. 273 

and cropping from year to year, the white villagers who have 
thrown their sickles into the common harvest — tliough small 
their patches individually, yet considerable in the aggregate — 
and the cloud of white planters and their families, reduced to 
poverty, who have been the foremost to go down into the 
Western bottoms, and there and elsewhere have bent with noble 
fortitude and ardour to labour in the fields. It would be a mis- 
apprehension to take the cotton crop now as the product of negro 
labour in the same sense as it was before the war. The inter- 
mixture of white labour in the cotton culture of the South is 
already large, and though the forms under which the lands are 
cultivated are various yet the general distinction betwixt large 
plantations wrought by negroes under white employers, and 
small farms wrought chiefly by white people, remains a promi- 
nent feature of the new state of things, the practical force of 
which is felt more year by year. The economical conditions of 
the two forms of culture may be briefly stated thus : — The large 
planter looks almost wholly to cotton as his paying crop, whereas 
the small farmer, mak'ng sure of meat and bread, milk and 
butter, fruit and vegetables as hin chief means of livelihood, 
raises a small crop of cotton as an extra rather than a main 
element of profit or subsistence. The large planter depends 
almost entirely on negro labour, and must take it with all its 
qualifications, and pay for it, as the arrangement now is, by ad- 
vances equal to one-half the value of his crops ; whereas the 
small farmer is less dependent on this negro-communism, 
may even save his cotton crop by the labour of his family 
and white people about him, and, when needful, have as 
good an opportunity as the large planter of engaging negro 
labour at wages for work done. So that while the one must 
recoup all his expenses, including his payments in dollars 
for special work done on the plantation, from his 500 acres of 
cotton, the other, without anything like a similar ratio of charges, 
looks only to the produce of his 10 or 20 acres, whatever price it 
may bring, as the means of obtaining a little ready money to pay 
for coffee, sugar, and other extras in the village stores. The value 
of cotton in the market is thus a much more crucial point to the 
large planter than to the small farmer, and in any severe depre- 
ciation one might expect to find the latter keeping afield longer 
than the former. The discouragement from the reduction of the 
price of cotton this season, as a point of. fact, is more marked 
among the large planters than the small farmers. It would be 
unreasonable, indeed — and pitiable if it were reasonable — to 
despair of the large cotton farms of the South, which continue to 
be the main root of cotton production, as well as the main centres 
of free negro labour ; but they cannot meanwhile be pronounced 
in a satisfactory condition. The larger planters may always, in 

T 



2Y4 NASHVILLE. [cii. xxxviii. 

any great fall of cotton, improve their affairs by adopting greater 
variety of culture, and rendering themselves less dependent on 
external su))plies, while economising more fully the resources of 
their huuls, although even in this direction the extraordinary 
coiii})r()niisc made with negro labour operates as a serious obstacle. 
The most, powc^rful instrument of im^jrovement on large planta- 
tions would be a steam j>lough, neither too costly nor mechanically 
elaborate, to break up the waste lands and prepare the soil for 
crops so much better than the negro-and-mule can do, or rather 
what they cannot do at all, and to give the planter some power 
over the direction of labour on his property. In sucli mechanical 
means, and in the development of stock and varied produce, the 
Southern ))lanters have hitherto unopened sources of recuperation 
and sustain ment. With these improvements, more especially 
backed by a just and genial Federal policy, advantages great 
and signal would arise to all classes in the Southern country : 
without them, one may doubt the result. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Concluding Remarks. 

[Washington. — March 20.] 

At Nashville, travelling north, one loses sight of the " Cotton 
Belt," and the task 1 had set myself is now about accomplished. 
JNorth Tennessee and Kentucky is a country of grains, grasses, 
and stock — of an undulating surface with good natural drainage, 
and elevated ridges often fantastical in shape — much njore thinly 
wooded than the cotton region, an undergrowth of verdure 
gleaming brightly under the trees. There are considerable 
breadths of winter wheat, which, though said to be somewhat 
backward this season, is thriving in appearance, and gives a 
gi'ateful aspect of cultivation and plenty to the land. A degree 
or two north of Nashville the difference of temperature is quite 
perceptible, and while the weather in the middle of March is 
genial and pleasant, the morning air is rawer, the sky more gvay, 
and there is a colder nip in the winds than farther south. The 
farm-housing is mostly all of a more substantial character tiian 
on the cotton plantations, but, save on some tobacco farms of 
Kentucky, inferior to the steadings on the farms of England or 
Scotland; and it is obvious that, owing to the difference of climate, 
the protection of stock from the weather is a matter of much less 
concern to the American than to the British farmer. Pens are 
sometimes built with a flat wattled roof covered with loose straw, 
and where such contrivances are wanting the cattle eat their way- 
through the middle of large stacks of fodder, leaving an arch of 
straw or hay overhead that forms a shelter in the storm. On 
many of the fields of winter-sown wheat the Indian corn-stalks 
of the last summer are still standing, and probably serve some 
useful purpose to the growing crop ; but their protracted occu- 
pation is scarcely consistent with the careful preparation of the 
soil for crops of wheat that prevails in the most advanced parts 
of Europe. Agriculture in the United States is altogether less 
elaborate, and more easy, not to say careless, in its modes than 
in the thickly peopled countries of the Old World. Yet I have 

t2 



276 WASHINGTON. [ch. xxxix. 

not found tliat the yield of wheat per acre in these parts, while 
more easily produced, is nearly equal to the yield per acre 
in the more highly cultivated wheat lands of the United 
Kingdom. 

Lebanon in Kentucky, inclosed on two sides by an amphi- 
theatre of conical liills, covered with cedars, is one of the many 
charming spots in that ricli and lusty State. The Mammoth 
Cave, within thirty or forty miles, is a constant attraction, as it 
must always be, to streams of visitors both of tlie holiday and 
scientific orders ; but any description of its M'ondrous natural 
curiosities Avould be out of place liere. There is in Lebanon one 
of the largest and most completely equipped steam flour-mills 
ever seen in any small country place, producing 800 barrels of 
wheat flour per day of ten hours. With wheat-growing all 
round, the supply of grain is purchased with every advantage ; 
but wliat is chiefly notable in a work of the most recent origin is 
the facility with which a profitable market has been found for the 
product, the flour of the Lebanon mill being entirely absorbed by 
a single town in Georgia. 

Approaching Louisville, the largest city in Kentucky, and one 
of the most flourishing seats of trade in the West, a traveller cannot 
but mark one proof more of the vast extent of American territory 
in the rough and all but waste condition of fat and level soil up to 
the environs of the town. It is only on entering the suburbs that 
one becomes apprised of a large and thriving population by 
numerous clearances, staked off in building lots, indicating a 
rapid increase of handsome suburban residences. The popula- 
tion of Louisville is now 120,000. The city has prospered much 
since the war. The merchants of Louisville held out a helping 
hand to the planters and storekeepers of the South, and estab- 
lished a character of friendliness and enterprise that will long 
give them a favourable position in the Southern trade. The 
sale of heavy bagging for cotton bales has here attained con- 
siderable magnitude ; and the favour of the planters, under the 
high prices of cotton wool, for the heaviest bagging that can be 
made has led to a great extension of domestic manufacture of this 
material, witli which the heavy cloth of Calcutta alone seems to 
compete. There are 390 power-looms in the United States 
making 250 yards each of flax-and-jute bagging, 2^ to 2^ lbs. 
per yard a day, or, at 250 working days say in the year, 
24,375,000 yards per annum. There are besides 95 hand-looms 
making cloth of Kentucky hemp, 2 lbs. per yard, at the rate of 
128 yards a day, or 2,9()(S,750 yards per annum. Of both 
kinds there is thus a total domestic supply of 27,343,750 yards, 
which in the proportion of six yards to each bale of cotton is 
adequate to cover 4,557,291 bales, or more than the whole crop 
of this season. Of the Calcutta cloth similarly used the impor- 



CH. XXXIX.] CONCLUDING REMAV^KS. ni 

tat ion this year is said to be 25,000 bales, or enough to cover a 
million and a half bales of cotton. There is thus an over supply: 
prices have been drooping during the season, and the domestic 
manufacturers are probably not too well satisfied with the pro- 
spect. But, as long as the demand of the planters is for the 
strongest heavy material, the looms of the United States will 
supply the main part of this si:)ecial branch of the trade in bag- 
ging. For the lighter descriptions of cloth for grain, cotton-seed, 
manure and other bags, the use of which is annually extending, 
the jute factories of Dundee and Glasgow ha""^*^ an advantage 
which they may long retain. The tobacco market of Louisville 
presents the commerce of the city perhaps in its grandest aspect. 
There are six or seven tobacco " houses" or salerooms, placed in 
the same street, where the hogsheads are presented daily, and 
the dealers pass with the auctioneer from one "house" to the other. 
The tobacco undergoes a strict official inspection, the samples 
bearing the official seal ; but before sale the hogsheads are 
thrown open, spikes driven into the mass at various points, and 
the tobacco seen from the top to the bottom as the auctioneer is 
crying his bids. The rapidity with which all this is done, the 
presence of bnyers from all parts of America and Europe, and 
the large amount of business transacted in a few hours of the 
day, convey a very animated and favourable impression of the 
tobacco trade of Louisville. The sales of tobacco last year in 
Louisville amounted to about four millfon dollars. 

The falls of the Ohio at Louisville spread the waters of the 
river over an imposing breadth, and among the various interest- 
inj? sights of the city the first and grandest is the iron railway 
and foot-bridge, connecting the two States of Ohio and Indiana, 
and the Louisville and Indianapolis with the Louisville and 
Nashville and the Memphis and Louisville raih'oads — the clief- 
(V ceuvre of Mr. Albert Fink, whose railway bridges at Florence, 
Decatur, and other points of the South cannot fail to attract the 
attention of every passenger. The bridges built by Mr. Fink 
are of two kinds — the triangular and suspension truss — and have 
largely contributed towards removing the prejudice against iron 
as a material for bridges, and advancing the introduction of iron 
bridges on the American railroads. Of the suspension truss the 
bridge at Louisville is the most recent and the most important 
illustration. The total length of the bridge superstructure is 
one mile and 14 feet ; the number of piers and abutments 
twenty-eight ; and the length of the spans from 30 to 400 
feet. The height of the track above high water is about 50 
feet. The quantity of iron in the structure amounts to 8,723,000 
lbs. The work, from the laying of the first stone to its comple- 
tion for the passage of trains, was done in two years and a half 
at a cost of a million and a half of dollars. I'he great compa.ss 



278 WASHINGTON. [ch. xxxix. 

of the bridge, the Uglitncss of its structure resting over the stone 
piers like threads of gossamer in the wide landscape, and the 
facility of adaptation^with which the channels of navigation have 
heen kept open, are very striking, and well entitle Mr. Fink to 
the highest estimate as an engineer. 

From Louisville to Cincinnati one has choice of going by rail 
or river, and the latter, though longer in point of time, will not 
disappoint any one whose object is to introduce as much variety 
into American travel as possible. The approach to Cincinnati at 
eai'ly dawn with chaos brooding over the morning, many tall 
chimneys belching out columns of smoke more dense than the 
clouds of night in gradual process of dispersion, and the Ohio 
not so much flowing as smoothly agitated, like a river of oil, 
under the paddle wheels, is quite as moving to the spirit as sun- 
set from Louisville the previous day. On nearing the mooiing- 
place of the steamboats a long line of lights, like stars in the sky, 
arrests attention ; and on coming to anchor these are found to be 
simply the lamps of the suspension bridge, probably one of the 
most remarkable works of the kind in existence. As these lights 
in the dawn had perplexed me a little, and put all my astronomy 
out of reckoning, I did not fail to make some inquiry after them 
during the day. The Cincinnati Suspension Bridge is the work 
of Mr. J. A. Roebling, the celebrated engineer to whom the 
world is indebted for the Niagara Bridge, the Alleghany, and 
various other notable works of the same kind on the American 
continent. But in the bridge over the Ohio, connecting Cincin- 
nati with Covington on the Kentucky bank, Mr. Roebling may be 
said to have brought his principles of wire-cable for suspension 
bridges to the highest perfection. To conciliate objection on the 
part of the river steamboat interest, a finely turned arch has been 
thrown over the whole breadth of the Ohio at low water, fully 
1,000 feet from tower to tower, with flanking spans over high- 
water space, giving an easy ascent from the streets on either side. 
The bridge floor, consisting of a strong wrought-iron frame, ovei'- 
laid with heavy planking, is hung by suspenders at every five 
feet to two wire cables, composed each of 5,180 wires laid parallel 
to each other, forming a cylinder 12^ inches in diameter, with 
stays of the same material marvellously increasing the general 
support and strength of the structure. The bridge is used for 
teams and foot passengers, but it is believed that very little more 
strengthening would adapt it to the passage of railway trains. 
The great bridge at Cincinnati seems a model for suspension 
bridges elsewhere under much more easy natural conditions, and 
there can be no doubt that i^w objects will be found more 
interesting in a city that is very solidly and scientifically built 
throughout, full of life and trade, and presenting many sub- 
stantial attractions to any curious pas.ser-by. 



CH. XXXIX.] CONCLUDING REMARKS. 279 

I left Cincinnati on Saturday night a little before ten o'clock 
on my Avay to Washington by the Ohio and Baltimore road, 
and arrived at Parkersburg at day-break, where a great bridge 
laid on solid stone piers has just been opened over the Ohio ; 
thence passed into Western Virginia, and having entered the 
Southern States on the eastern side, was glad to hail the limits 
of the " Old Commonwealth " again. The country is marked by 
mound-like hills with narrow ravines, where humble farmers 
extract such scanty livelihood as the peasants of Wales or the 
Highlands of Scotland from the milk of a few cows and from 
Indian corn-stalks scarcely bigger than an ordinary walking 
stick. But in this poorish land, mineral traces begin to appear, 
and the oil-field, outcropping from Pennsylvania, has received 
considerable development in Western Virginia — one place being 
so marked in its supply of oil as to have received the name of 
" Petroleum." The railway, while pursuing a devious route in the 
ravines, gradually ascends by steep gradients a hilly region 
watered by satfron-coloured streams. The hills, of no greater 
height at iirst than 500 to 1,000 feet, increase in bulk till on the 
Shoot, a dark and rapid river, they become stupendous ; and the 
road being cut along their sides, the ravines below seem as deep 
as the rounded crags are high above. The people are mining 
coal and iron among these sandstone rocks, and tracks of rail, 
passing sometimes sheer down the steep and sometimes parallel 
to the railway, are often seen. The line of road strikes the head 
waters of the Potomac, and a canal to Baltimore, the Potomac, 
and the Railroad, pass over a large tract of country through the 
same defiles. Piedmont, the centre of a great mining industry, 
with railway machine-shops, long lines of coal trucks, and many 
young and spirited mechanics from the "old country" — Cumber- 
land, a much larger town of similar fibre, on leaving which one 
catches on the western horizon the Northern lineament of the 
great mountain range of the same name, the farthest Southern 
spurs of which were seen in Georgia — Martinsburg, where on a 
lower geological level sandstone hill and mountain disappear, 
and the buildings of the town seem as if carved out of the lime- 
stone rock- — and Harper's Ferry, Avhere there is a singular con- 
centration alike of striking geographical fe? ures and equally 
striking historical reminiscences — are all points on this Ohio 
and Baltimore route that are highly interesting, but must here 
be touched in the most cursory fasliion. The train arrived in 
Washington at 11.15 p.m. on Sunday night, March 19 — a dis- 
tance from Cincinnati of 610 miles accomplished in twenty-five 
hours some odd minutes. 

It was about the same day of October last I began in the 
American capital these remarks, now to be brought to a close iia 
a few sentences. ' 



280 WASHINGTON. [cii. xxxix. 

The last year's crop of cotton in the fS'Aitliern States has 
abundantly demonstrated their great power of increasing sup[)ly 
under the stimulus of a high range of value. Yet this power 
may suddenly contract when the expectation of price has not 
been realized ; and the last year's experience has brought the 
extent of cotton culture in the South to a passing ordeal. The 
Southern planters can always modify their agriculture, under the 
vicissitudes of the market, by growing smaller or larger propor- 
tions of corn and cotton. Yet this goes but a small way towards 
a satisfactory condition of agrarian industry; the farms require to 
be more efficiently cultivated, more abundantly stocked, and t(5 
be made the arena of a more varied husbandry, in order to supply 
the loss of former profit arising from the abolition of slave pro- 
perty, in order even to give desirable permanence and success to 
the culture of cotton ; and hence the revolution in the South, 
though the vast changes it has made are in full and so far hope- 
ful progress, cannot be said to have spent its force or to have 
reached a complete or durable settlement. 

The system of free labour has been attended with a degree of 
success to which the planters themselves are the most forward of 
all in the Southern cominunity to bear testimony. Complaints are 
rife enough of negro legislators, negro lieutenant-governors and 
office-bearers, and of the undue political elevation given to the 
coloured people by the transitional state of government through 
which the country has been passing since the war ; and even on 
this effervescing subject I have found it necessary to distinguish, 
on the one hand, betwixt the outcries of the bar-rooms and the 
street-corners — the echoes too often, it may be feared, of undone 
slave-traders and overseers — and, on the other, the true public 
opinion of the white population ; but apart from this vexed 
question of politics, on which there are substantial grounds of 
grievance, I can scarcely recall an instance in which any planter 
or other employer of negro labour has not said that the result of 
emancipation, in its industrial bearings, has been much more 
fovourable than could have been anticipated, or who has not 
added an expression of satisfaction that slavery, however roughly, 
has been finally effaced. Yet now proceeding on my own obser- 
vation, the introduction of free labour in the Southern States has 
been bound up with such novel relations betwixt employer and 
employed, in particular the payment of the field-labourers by 
one-half the produce of the land, that I confess I have had the 
greatest difficulty in attempting to reconcile them with any sound 
principle. One may understand how an agricultural communism 
among a group of people on a farm might be carried out ; but 
the project would reijuire an economy and mutuality of arrange- 
ment betwixt the members of the group to which there is no 
resemblance in the existing conditions of a Southern cotton plan- 



en. XXXIX.] CONCLUDING REMARKS. 281 

latiou.^ While payment by share of llie crops affords tlie careful 
and hard-working labourer an opportunity of doing well, in which 
his employer participates, it tends to introduce a confusion of sense 
as regards right and duty, and an uncertainty and fluctuation of 
reward for labour, that are more likely to be adverse than favour- 
able to the formation of steady industrious habits among a race so 
Lately freed from the most absolute dependence. The few negroes 
who are wise enough to thrive under this system take advantage 
of the abundance of land to rent and crop for themselves, while the 
planter is left to struggle with the mass who abuse the opportu- 
nities and privileges they possess ; so that the worst results of 
the system are apt to be reproduced, if not aggravated, from year 
to year on the great majority of the farms. The share system is 
so stoutly defended by many person.'^ of practical experience that 
it requires some hardihood of conviction to avow an opposite 
opinion ; but the judgment I have formed must be given, how- 
ever deferentially. I cannot think that the payment of field- 
hands by shares of the crop, however liberal, is consistent either 
with the well-being of the negroes or with the agricultural de- 
velopment of the South. It is more like a half-way slavery than 
any relation of capital and labour of an advanced type ; and its 
incompatibility witli progress will be seen more and more clearly 
as the Southern farmers proceed to keep live stock, to introduce 
deep or steam ploughing, to diversify their crops, or to carry out 
any improvement on their lands. 

Though the weight of taxation in the Southern States is an 
obstacle to their prosperity that forces itself on attention, yet as 
in some respects inevitable, and as lying within the political 
action of the people and the governments, it is one on which I 
have wished to touch as lightly as possible. The Federal revenue, 
swelled beyond all American experience or anticipation by the 
gigantic war, must be borne by the South in common with other 
sections of the Union, But the State and other local revenues 
of the South, owing, on the one hand, to the immense collapse of 
assessable property resulting from the furious struggle, and, on 
the other, to the new demands of expenditure arising, such as the 
building and endowment of free schools for the whole population, 
railways, and other public works, have become much more 
onerous in proportion to the assessable basis than in any other 
part of the United States, and require all careful and prudent 

1 Metayage, a mode of letting farms prevailing over a great part of the 
South of Europe, under which the proprietor furnishes part of the means of 
cultivation iind shares the produce with the cultivator or metayer, is somewhat 
similar to the share system of the cottou plantations. But 'metayage, so far 
from being beneficial, has an inferior reputation, both as regards the culture 
of tlie soil and the well-being of the cultivators. Yet the share-arrangement 
of the cotton planters in the Southern States is not even so well planned as 
■tiietayafje, and dill'ers from it in some essential points for the worse. 



282 WASHINGTON. [cii. xxxix. 

consi(l(!ration. Heavy as these biir.lciis would have been iiiidei' 
nny circuinstaiices, the State and otlier local taxation ot" the 
South has been f^rossly abused by a corrupt and reckless admi- 
nistration since the war, which, under the reviving control of the 
t.n\])MyerH, is now receiving a check likely to be ])ernianent and 
cd'ective. The Federal taxation, I will observe, is rendered un- 
necessarily oppressive and injurious by the Anu'ri(;an weakness 
of "protection to nutivc industry," and the American ambition 
of" paying off ilie National Debt," both purposes involving some 
of the highest jirinciples of political economy and finance, in re- 
gard to which tluu'e is a wide (icld of controversy. Jicmarks on 
the tariff of the United States can only be made by a British writer 
under a certain amount of restraint, as indeed all criticism from 
"without on the int(n-nal affairs of any country can in any case be. 
The American Protectionists have a short and easy way of closing 
every demonstration of the international advantages of free trade 
by deeliiring, especially to a British advocate, that the laws of 
the United States arc to be made not for the interests of Eng- 
land or any other foreign country, but for ihe interests of the 
United States themselves. This argument, however captivating 
to a narrow ])atriolism, too often circumscribed within the still 
more limited circle of personal interest, has little intrinsic weight ; 
since, taking it at its strongest point, the fact is that England 
Laving thirty years ago — a long ])eriod in the history even of 
nations — solved this (piestion for herself, with some of her greatest 
interests nuire threatened by the action of free trade tluvn the 
greatest interests ot any other country in the world can well be, it 
comes with ill grace from American citizens to exclude on a 
fallaciously selfish or doubtful plea any wisdom which the example 
or attainments of England in commercial polity may afford. And, 
indeed, the question of free trade betwixt America and Europe 
engages ineoni))avably greater interest among the people of the 
United States lliaii among even the manufaetuR>rs and merchants 
of Enghuul, who appear to entertain extreuiely little concern on 
the subject, save as one among many other principles affecting 
the gxmcral progress and civilization of the world. If free trade 
cannot commend itself on American soil in the interests of 
America alone, there is an v-'nd, of course, to the ([uestion there. 
The Unit(>(l States' policy of " laying off the National Debt" of 
two to three thousand millions of dollars, by monthly instal- 
ments of a million dollars or less, brought into association with 
the question of the tarifl" t.ln-ough the common nexus of taxation, 
if it err at all, most surely errs " on virtue's side," and it becomes 
foreign criticism to b(>. more abstinent on this point than even on 
the other. Th(> Secretary of the Treasury deems or finds it 
necessary, in carrying out this ])oliey, to have 100 millions of a 
surplus always on hand; ;ind as tlu' only way of conveying to 



cii. XXXIX.] CONCLUDING REMARKS. 283 

people ill Great Britain a faint conception of tlie importance 
given to tliis question by the American people, I am forced to ask 
what tliey would think if Mr. GUulstone or Mr. Lowe were 
to insist, after providing for all the expenses and obligations 
of tlie yeai-, on levying twenty-odd millions sterling under 
the profession of paying off the National Debt, with the 
national taxation increasing in amonnt and weight during tlie 
process, instead of annually diminishing, which is the common 
object to be desired and attained? There are three ways of "} 
reducing the burden of a National Debt, First, paying off the ' 
principal ; secondly, converting portions of the ])rincipal, as 
favourable occasions arise, into a lower rate of interest ; and, 
thirdly, giving such play and freedom to the development of 
national wealth as, even without touching the National Debt or 
its rate of interest, must infallibly reduce its burden by a simple \ 
rule of jjroportion. The American Government has ])ursued the "^ 
two first of these courses with inflexible integrity and with more 
or less success since the war ; but the third it has not only not 
pursued, but has pressed the first two so closely as to run directly 
counter to it, and to have all but produced the dilemma that the 
more determined the nation seems to pay off the Debt, the less able 
it becomes. These questions, opening a wealth of observation, are 
canvassed with such spirit aiid ability by the leading American 
newspapers, and in some instances with such admirable indepen- 
dence of party, that very \'c\^ who, like rnys(df, have lived in the 
country for some months, but must own that they have derived 
greatly more from, than they can hojjc to contribute to, the 
discussion. 

I trust that in these pages I have given no partial view of the 
many topics that have passed under review, and that as respects 
the general condition of the ^Southern States I have not failed to 
afford to many the means of a fuller and exacter understanding — 
at least a nearer and more intimate view — than they had before. 
If I have given strong expression to convictions on sucli contro- 
versial ground as that of legislation or politics, there seems an 
ample vindication of this freedom in the chief desire and aim of 
the American people, of all political parties, themselves. The i 
polity of the Unit(;d States that may be said to surmount all ! 
others, and to be national in the highest sense, is that of attracting 
in copious volume the surplus labour and capital of Europe ; and 
the wisdom of this polity is indisputable, since, while directly 
building up their own greatness, it is the course in which the 
United States may render the greatest service to the world. 
But it were unwise to rest this movement on the basis of mere 
political or social discontent in other countries, while neglecting 
sources manifold of discontent at home; the conditions, of free 
and equal government, as well as of social prosperity, have made 



284 WASHINGTON. [cii. xxxix. 

mncli progress in the Old World ; and the more thoron;,^!)ly 
emigrants, especially of the United Kingdom, feel at home in 
the New World, under just and wise laws and all the blessing* 
of a well-ordered society, the greater their number, the better theit 
character, and the more lasting their usefulness as citizens of the 
United iStates may be expected to be. Betwixt the Tariff, in 
particular, and the main polity and interest of the United States, 
there appears to be a palpable contradiction, since it directly 
shuts out the capital of other countries, and renders the land of 
America less attractive to and less tenable by foreign immi- 
grants. It is this consideration that has chiefly inspired any 
little political criticism in this book. I have been writing of 
States which, though not sharing hitherto in any equal degree 
with other sections of the Union the stream of labour and capital 
from Europe to America, present under fair legislation and good 
government a peculiarly rich and interesting field for immigra- 
tion, agriculture, commerce, and the development of many 
branches of industry ; and were the balance in this respect now 
to be redressed in favour of the South, there would be in such 
good fortune a result no less gratifying to all American citizens 
than responsive to tiie deep interest which an heroic, not 
too wise, and unavailing struggle for independence excited 
throughout the world. 



INDEX. 



r^' 



A. 



Abuses, governmental, 16, 35, 41-3, 59, 
97-8, 186, 212-3, 227-8, 261, 269-70, 
281-3. 

Agriculture, 64, 69-72, 119-24, 127-9, 
140, 144, 179, 254, 256-7, 266-9, 
271-2, 275 ; use of manures, 15 ; dis- 
coveries of pliosphates, 25, 46-8. 



B. 

Banks and Banking, 45, 54-5, 72, 79, 
171, 210-12, 264. 



C. 



Census, alleged inaccuracies of, 19, 96, 
196. 

Cotton, average production ppr acre of, 
61, 64, 121, 140, 250; buying and 
selling of, 63, 260 ; increase of growers 
of, 65, 119, 121, 272 ; competition of 
large and small growers of, 272-4 ; 
couiparative value per acre of, 143 ; 
place of cotton in rotation of crops, 
268-9 ; selection of seed, 64-5 ; geo- 
graphical limits of "Cotton 13olt," 
263. 



H. 

Health, statistics of, 52-3, 78, 187, 236 
251-3. 



Ku-Klux-Klan, alleged outrages, rise 
and decline of, 35, 152-5. 



Land, abundance and cheapness of, 
21-2, 65, 85, 114-15, 142-3, 159, 179, 
240, 255, 262-3. 

M. 

Manufactures, cotton, ^^, 91, 136-7, 
143 ; paper, 184-5 ; cotton-seed oil, 
185-6. 

Minerals, coal and iron, 106-9, 154, 
162-3, 173-8 ; rock salt, 233 ; crys- 
talline sulphur, 234. 

Money, change of value of, 33, 77 ; ex- 
orbitant rate of interest, 57, 79, 151, 
210, 241-3. 



Negroes, testimony borne under free 
labour concerning, 17, 30, 58-9, 65, 
76, 131, 163, 167, 280; merits of 
paying by wages or share of crops 
the, 31, 60, 128-9, 146-7, 249, 280-1 ; 
migration from country to town of, 
36, 52-3, 74, 96 ; plantation privi- 
leges of, 128-30 ; moral and social 
progress under freedom of, 250-4 ; 
question as to comparative j^roduc- 
tiveuess of free and slave labour, 
58-9, 272-3. 



R. 

Railways, cost of construction of, 31, 
35, 88, 188-90, 262; projected lines 
of, 34, 58, 81-2, 165-6, 168-9, 182-3, 
258-9 ; State endorsement of boiids 
of, 88-90, 157-8, 270 ; management 
of, 82-3, 149-50. 



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ABYSSINIA. By W. T. Blanford. 8vo. 2.\s. 

This work contains an accoicnt of the Geological and Zoological 
Observations made by the Author in Abyssinia, when accompanying the 
British Army on its anarch to' Magdala and back in 1868, and diuing a 
short journey in Northern Abyssinia, after the departttre of the troops. 
Parti. Personal Narrative; Part\II. Geology; Part III. Zoology. 
With Coloured Illustrations and Geological Map. 

Bright (John, M. P.).— SPEECHES ON QUESTIONS OF 
PUBLIC POLICY. By the Right Hon. John Bright, M. P. 
Edited by Professor Thorold Rogers. Two vols. 8vo. 25^. 
Second Edition, with Portrait. 

" / have divided the Speeches contained in these volumes into groups. 
The materials for selection are so abundant, that I have been constrained 
to omit many a speech which is worthy of careful pertisal. I have 
naturally given prominence to those subjects with which Air. Bright has 
been especially identified, as, for example, India, Atnerica, Irelatid, and 
Parliamentary Reform. But nearly every topic of great public interest on 
which Mr. Bright has spoken is represented in these volumes^'' 

Editor's Preface. 



GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Bright (John, M.P.) {continued)— 

AUTHOR'S POPULAR EDITION. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth. Second 
Edition. 3j-. (}d. 

Bryce. — the HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. By James Bryce, 
B.C.L., Regius Professor of Civil Law, Oxford. New and Re- 
vised Edition. Crown 8vo. ^s. 6d. 

CHATTERTON : A Biographical Study. By Daniel Wilson, 
LL.D., Professor of Histoiy and English Literature in University 
College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. 6^. 6d. 
The Author here regards Chattei'ton as a Poet, not as a mej-e " resetter 

and dejacer of stolen literary treasures." Reviei.ved in this light, he has 

found much in the old materials capable of being turned to nrw account ; 

Old to these materials research in various directions has enabled him to 

?nake some additions. 

Clay .—THE PRISON CHAPLAIN. A Memoir of the Rev. John 

Clay, B.D., late Chaplain of the Preston Gaol. With Selections 

from his Reports and Correspondence, and a Sketch of Prison 

Discipline in England. By his Son, the Rev. W. L. Clay, M.A. 

8vo. x^s. 

" Fe-w books have appeared of late years better entitled to an attentive 

perusal. . . . It presents a complete narrative of all that has been done and 

atienipted by various philanthropists for the amelioration of the condition and 

the improvement of the morals of the criminal classes in the British 

dominions." — London Review. 

Cobden. — SPEECHES ON QUESTIONS OF PUBLIC 

POLICY. By Richard Cobden. Edited by the Right Hon. 

John Bright, M.P., and Professor Rogers. Two vols. 8vo. With 

Portrait. (Unifoi-m with Bright's Speeches.) 

The Speeches contained in these two volumes have been selected and 

edited at the instance of the Cobden Club. They form an important part 

of that collective contribution to Political science which has conferred on 

iheir author so vast a reputation. 

Cooper. — ATHENE CANTABRIGIENSES. By Charles 

Henry Cooper, F.S.A., and Thompson Cooper, F.S.A. 

Vol. L 8vo., 1500—85, i8j. ; Vol. IL, 1586—1609, i8j-. 

This elaborate ivork, which is dedicated by permission to Lord Maeaulay, 

contains lives of the eminent men sent forth by Cambridge, after the 

fashion of Anthony h Wood, in his famous " Athence Oxonieitses." 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &^ TRAVELS. 5 

Cox (G. v., M. A.).— RECOLLECTIONS OF OXFORD. 
By G. V. Cox, M.A., New College, Late Esquire Bedel and 
Coroner in the University of Oxford. Second Edition. Crown 8\o. 
\os. 6d. 

"An ai!iiisi7ig iarrago of anecdote, and will pleasantly recall in many 
a coiint7y parsonage the memory ofyoiithftil days." — Times. 

"Daily News." — the war correspondence of 

THE DAILY NEWS, 1870. Edited, with Notes and Com- 
ments, forming a Continuous Narrative of the War between 
Germany and France. With IMaps. Third Edition, rez'ised. 
Crown 8vo. "jS. 6d. 

This volume hriiigs before the public in a convenient ajid portable form 
the record of the momentons events which have marked the lu'st six months 
ofi&7o. 

The special value of letters from camps and battle-fields consists in the 
vividness with which they reproduce the life and spirit of the scenes and 
transactions in the midst of which they are written. In the letters which 
have appeared in the Daily News since the Franco-Prussian War, the 
public has recognized this quality as present in an cmi7ient degree. 

The book begins with a chronology of the war from July ^h, when the 
French govennnent called out the army reserves, to December i\.th ; the 
detailes of the campaign are illusti-ated by four maps representing — I. The 
battles of Weissenburg and Worth. 2. The battles of Saarbjiickejt and 
Speiecheren. 3, The battle-field before Sedan. 4. A plan of Metz and its 
vicinity. 

THE WAR CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DAILY AEWS 
continued to the Peace. Edited, with Notes and Comments. 
Second Edition, Crown 8vo. with Map, ']s. 6d. 

Dicey (Edward). — THE MORNING LAND. By Edward 
Dicey. Two vols, crown 8vo, i6s. 
"An invitation to be present at the opejiing of the Suez Canal was the 
immediate cause 0/ my joicrney. But I made it my object also to see as 
much of the Morning Land, of whose marvels the canal across the 
Isthmus is only the least and latest, as time and opportunity would permit. 
The result of my obsei-vations was communicated to the journal I then 
represented, in a series of letters, 7vhich I no7U give to the public tn a 
collected form." — Extract from Author's Preface. 



GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Dilke.— GREATER BRITAIN. A Record of Travel iu English- 
speaking Countries during 1866-7. (America, Australia, India.) 
By Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke, M.P. Fifth and Cheap 
Edition. Crown 8vo. 6^-. 

" Mr. Dilke has luritten a book zvhich is probably as well ivorth reading 
<is any book of the same aims and character that ei'er was tvritten. Its 
merits are that it is written in a lively and agreeable style, that it implies 
a great deal of physical pluck, that no page of it fails to shozu an acute and 
highly intelligetit observe}-, that it stimulates the imagination as well as the 
/iidgment of the reader, and that it is on perhaps the most ititeresting 
subject that can attract an Englishman zvho cares about his country." 

Saturday Review. 

Darer (Albrecht).— HISTORY OF THE LIFE OF AL- 
BRECHT DURER, of Niirnberg. With a Translation of his 
Letters and Journal, and some account of his works. By Mrs. 
Charles Heatgx. Royal 8vo. bevelled boards, extra gilt. 31J. 6d. 

This work contains about Thirty Illustrations, ten of which art produce 
tions by the Autotype {carbon) process, and are printed in permanent tints 
by Messrs. Cundall and Fleming, under license from the Autotype Com- 
pany, Limited ; the rest are Photographs and Woodcuts, 

EARLV EGYPTIAN HISTORY FOR THE YOUNG. See 
"Juvenile Section." 

Elliott. — LIFE OF HENRY VENN ELLIOTT, of Brighton. 
By JosLVH Bateman, M.A., Author of "Life of Daniel Wilson, 
Bishop of Calcutta," &c. With Portrait, engraved by Jeens ; 
and an Appendix containing a short sketch of the life of the Rev. 
Julius Elliott (who met with accidental death while ascending the 
Schreckhorn in July, 1869.) Crown 8vo. %s.bd. Second Edition, 
with Appendix. 
"^ veiy charming piece oj religious biography; no one can read it 

without both pleasure and p}-ofit."—BKn:\sn Quarterly Review. 

EUROPEAN HISTORY, narrated in a Series of Historical 
Selections from the best Authorities. Edited and arranged by 
E. M. Sewell and C. M. Yonge. First Series, crown 8vo. 6s. ; 
Second Series, 1088-1228, crown 8vo. 6^. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY &^ TRAVELS. 



I'V/ien young children have acquired the outlines of history Jro/n abridg- 
ments and catechisms, and it becomes desirable to give a more enlarged 
view of the subject, in order to render it really useful and interesting, a 
difficulty often arises as to the choice of books. Two courses are open, either 
to take a general and consequently dry history of facts, such as RusselVs 
Modern Europe, or to choose sojne work treating of a particular period or 
subject, such as the works of Macaulay and Froude. The former course 
usually renders history uninteresting ; the latter is tmsatisfactory, because 
it is not sufficiently comprehensive. To retnedy this difficulty, selections, 
continuous and chronological, have in the present volume been taken from 
the larger works of Freeman, Mihnan, Palgrave, and others, which mav 
serve as distinct landmarks of historical reading. " We knozv of scarcely 
anything," says the Guardian, of this volume, "which is so likely to raise 
to a higher lez'el the average standard of English education.'''' 

Fairfax. — a life of the great lord Fairfax, 

Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the Parliament of England. 

By Clements R. Markham, F.S.A. With Portraits, Maps, 

Plans, and Illustrations. Demy 8vo. \bs. 

No full Life of the great Parlia7nentary Commander has appeared; 

and it is here sought to produce one — based upon careful research in con- 

temporaiy records and upon family and other documents, 

" Highly usefil to the careful student of the History of the Civil War. 
. . Probably as a military chronicle Mr. Markham's book is one 
»f the most full and accurate that we possess about the Civil War." — 
Fortnightly Review. 

Forbes. — life of professor edward forbes, 

F.R.S. By George Wilson, M.D., F.R.S.E., and Archibald 

Geikie, F.R.S. 8vo. with Portrait, 14J. 
" From the fj-st page to the last the book claims careful reading, as being 
c^full but not overcroivded rehearsal of a most instructive life, and the true 
picture of a mind that was rare in strength and beauty." — Examiner. 

Freeman. — HISTORY OF FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 

from the Foundation of the Achaian League to. the Disruption of 
the United States. By Edward A. Freeman, M.A, Vol. I. 
General Introduction, Plistory of the Greek Federations. 8vo. 
2IS. 
" The task Mr. Freeman has undertaken is one of great magnitude and 
importance. It is also a task of an almost entirely novel character. No 



GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



other luork projessing to give the history of a political principle occurs io 
lis, except the slight contribittions to the history of representative govern- 
ment that is contained in a course of 31. Gziizofs lectures .... The 
history of the development of a principle is at least as important as the 
history of a dynasty, or of a race."" —SATURDAY Review. 

OLD ENGLISH HISTORY. By Edward A. Freeman, M.A., 
late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford. With Five Coloured Maps. 
Second Edition extra. Fcap. 8vo., half-bound. 6.r. 

" Its object is to shcnu that clear, accurate, and scientific victos of history, 
or indeed of any subject, may be easily given to children from the very 
first. . . I have, I hope, shozvn that it is perfectly easy to teach children, from 
the very first, to distinguish true history alike from legend and from tuilful 
invention, and also to understand the nature of historical authorities, and 
to weigh one statement against another. .... I have throughout striven to 
connect the history of England 'with the general history of civilized Europe, 
and I have especially tried to inake the book serve as an incentive to a more 
accurate study of historical geography." — Preface, 

HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF WELLS, 
as illustrating the History of the Cathedral Churches of the Old 
Foundation. By Edward A. Freeman, D.C.L., formerly P^ellow 
of Trinity College, Oxford. Crown 8vo. 3^. 6d. 

" I have here tried to treat the history of the Church of IVclls as a con- 
tribution io the general history of the Church and Kins;dom of England, 
and specially to the history of Cathedral Churches 0/ the Old Foundation. 
. . . I wish to point out the general principles of the on^nal founders as 
the model to which the Old Foundations should be brought back, and the 
N'ew Foundations reformed after their pattern.'" — Preface. 

French (George Russell). — shakspeareana 

GENEALOGICA. 8vo. cloth extra, i5j-. Uniform with the 
"Cambridge Shakespeare." 
Part I. — Identification of the dramatis personse in the historical plays, 
from King John to King Henry VIII. ; Notes on Characters in Macbeth 
and Hamlet; Feisons and Places belonging to Warwickshire alluaed to. 
Part II. — 77/1? Shakspeare and Arden families and their connexions, with 
Tables of descent. The present is the first attempt to give a detailed de- 
scription, in consecutive order, of each of the dramatis persons in Shak- 
spearis immortal chronicle-histories, and some of the character: have been. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &> TRAVELS. 



it is believed, herein identified for the first time A clue is furnished luhich, 
follotved up ivilh ordinary diligence, may enable any one, with a taste fior 
the pursuit, to trace a distinguished Shakspearean 'worthy to his lineal 
representative in the present day. 

Galileo. — the private life of Galileo. Compiled 

principally from his Correspondence and that of his eldest 
daughter^ Sister Maria Celeste, Nun in the Franciscan Convent of 
S. Matthew in Arcetri. With Portrait. Crown 8vo. ']s. 6d. 

It has been the endeavour oj the compiler to place befiore the reader a 
plain, nnga7-bled statement of facts ; and as a means to this end, to allon' 
Galileo, hisfiriends, and his judges to speak for themselves as far as possible. 

Gladstone (Right Hon. W. E., M.P.).— JUVENTUS 

MUNDI. The Gods and Men of the Heroic Age. Crown 8vo. 
cloth extra. With Map. lo.r. 6;7. Second Edition. 

This nezu work of Mr. Gladstone deals especially with the historic 
element in Homer, expounding that element and furnishing by its aid a 
full account of the Homeric men and the Homeric religion. It starts, after 
the introductory chapter, with a discussion of the several races then existing 
in Hellas, including the influence of the Pha:nicians and Egyptians. It 
contains chapters on the Olympian system, zoith its several deities ; on the 
Ethics and the Polity of the Heroic age ; on the geography o; Homer ; on 
the characters of the Poems ; presenting, in fine, a vieiv of primitive life 
and primitive society as found in the poems of Homer. To this A t7C 
Edition various additions have been made. 

"GLOBE" ATLAS OF EUROPE. Uniform in size with Mac- 
millan's Globe Series, containing 45 Coloured Maps, on a uniform 
scale and projection ; with Plans of London and Paris, and a 
copious Index. Strongly bound in half-morocco, with flexible 
back, <js. 

This Atlas includes all the countries of Europe in a series of 48 Maps, 
drawn on the same scale, with an Alphabetical Index to the situation of 
more than ten thousand places, and the relation of the various maps and 
countries to each other is defined in a general Key-map. All the maps 
being on a uniform scale facilitates the comparison of extent and distance, 
and conveys a just impression of the relative magnitude of different countries. 
The size suffices to shozv the proi'incial divisions, the railways and main 
roads, the principal rivers and mountain ranges. '■'■This atlas,'" writes the 



10 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



British Quarterly, " ivill be an invaluable boon for ike school, the desk, or 
the traveller's portmanteau.^^ 

Godkin (James). — the land war in Ireland, a 

History for the Times. By James Godkin, Author of "Ireland 
and her Churches," late Irish Correspondent of the Times. 8vo. I2s, 
A History of the Irish Land Qiiestion, 

Guizot. — (Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman.")— M; DE 

BARANTE, a Memoir, Biographical and Autobiographical. By 

M. Guizot. Translated by the Author of "John Halifax, 

Gentleman." Crown 8vo. ds. ()d. 

" The highest purposes of both history and biogi-aphy are answered by a 

memoir so lifelike, so faithful, and so philosophical," 

British Quarterly Review. 

Hole. — A GENEALOGICAL STEMMA OF THE KINGS OF 
ENGLAND AND FRANCE. By the Rev. C. Hole, M.A., 
Trinity College, Cambridge. On Sheet, is. 
The different families are printed in distinguishing colours, tMis facili- 
tating reference. 

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. Compiled and 

Arranged by the Rev. Charles Hole, M.A. Second Edition. 

l8mo. neatly and strongly bound in cloth. 4^-. (>d. 

One of the most comprehensive and accurate Biographical Dictionaries 

in the world, containing more than \%ooo persons of all countries, zuith 

dates of birth and death, and what they 7uere distinguished for. Extreme 

care has been bestozved on the verification of the dates ; and thus numerous 

errors, current in -previous works, have been corrected. Its size adapts it 

for the desk, portmanteau, or pocket. 

"An invaluable addition to our manuals 0/ reference, and, from its 
moderate price, cannot fail to become as popular as it is useful." — Times. 

Hozier. — the SEVEN WEEKS' WAR : Its Antecedents and 

its Incidents. By H. M. Hozier. With Maps and Plans. Two 

vols. 8vo. 28j. 

This work is based upon letters reprinted by permission from " The 

Times. " Tor the most part it is a product of a personal eye-witness of some 

of the most interesting incidents of a zvar xvhich, for rapidity and decisive 

restdts, may claim an almost unrivalled position in history. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, <3^ TRAVELS. 



THE BRITISH EXPEDITION TO ABYSSINIA. Compiled from 
Authentic Documents. By Captain Henry M. Hozier, late 
Assistant Military Secretary to Lord Napier of Magdala. 8vo. <js. 

'^ Several accottnts of the British Expedition have been published. .... 
They have, hoivever, been written by those who have not had access to those 
authentic documents, zohich cannot be collected directly after the termination 

of a campaign The endeavour of the author oj this sketch has been to 

present to readers a succinct and impartial account oj an enterprise which 
has rarely been equalled in the annals of war ^ — Preface. 

Irving.— THE ANNALS OF OUR TIME. A Diurnal of Events, 

Social and Political, which have happened in or had relation to 

the Kingdom of Great Britain, from the Accession of Queen 

Victoria to the Opening of the present Parliament. By Joseph 

Irving. Second Edition, continued to the present time. 8vo. 

half-bound. iSj-. ^Immediately. 

" We have before us a trusty and ready guide to the events of the past 

thirty years, available equally for the statesman, the politician, the public 

writer, and the general reader. If Mr. L'ving''s object has been to bring 

before the reader all the most Ttotezuorthy occurrences which have happened 

since the beginning of Her Majesty s reign, he may justly claim the credit 

of having done so 7/1 ost briefly, succinctly, and simply, and in such a 

manner, too, as to furnish him with the details necessary in each case to 

comprehend the event of which he is in search in an intelligent tnanner. 

Reflection will so-ve to show the great value oj such a work as this to the 

journalist and statesman, and indeed to every one who feels an interest in 

the progress of the age ; and we may add that its value is considerably 

increased by the addition of that most imporlatit of all appendices, an 

accurate and instructive index." — Times. 

Kingsley (Canon). — on THE ANCIEN REGIME as it 
existed on the Continent before the French Re\ olution. 
Three Lectures delivered at the Royal Institution. By the Rev. 
C. Kingsley, M.A., formerly Professor of Modern History 
in the University of Cambridge. Crown 8vo. 6s. 

These three lectures discuss sroa-ally (i) Caste, (2) Centralization, (3) 
The Explosive Forces by which the Revolution was superinduced. The 
Preface deals at some length xvith cej'tain political questions of the present 
day. 



12 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



THE ROMAN AND THE TEUTON. A Series of Lectures 
delivered before the University of Cambridge. By Rev. C. 

KiNGSLEY, M.A. 8vO. I2J. 

Contents: — Tnaugttral Lecture ; The Forest Children; The Dying 
'Empire; The Hiunan Dehtge ; The Gothic Civilizer; Dietriches End; The 
Nemesis of the Goths ; Panhis Diaconus ; The Clergy and the Heathen ; 

The Monk a Civilizer ; The Lombard Laivs ; The Popes and the Lombards ; 

The Strategy of Providence. 

Kingsley (Henry, F.R.G.S.). — tales OF OLD 

TRAVEL, Re-narrated by Henry Kingsley, F.R.G.S. With 

Eight Illustrations by HuARD. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. ds. 

Contents: — Marco Polo; The Shifzureck of Pelsart ; The Wonderful 

Adventures of Andrew Battel; The Wanderings of a Capuchin; Peter 

Carder; The Preso-oation of the '''' Terra Nova ;'''' Spitzbergen; D'Erme- 

nonville's Acclimatizatio7i Adventure ; The Old Slave Trade; Miles Philips ; 

The Sufferings of Robert Everard ; John Fox; Alvaro Nunez; TheFomt- 

dation of an Emiire. 

Latham. — BLACK AND WHITE : A Journal of a Three Months' 
Tour in the United States. By Henry Latham, M.A., Barrister- 
at-Law. 8vo. \os. 6d. 
" The spirit in which Mr. Latham has written about our brethren in 

America is commendable in JtigJi degree." — Athen^UM. 

Law. — THE ALPS OF HANNIBAL. By William John Law, 

M.A., formerly Student of Christ Church, Oxford. Two vols. 

8vo. 21^. 

" No one can read the work and not acquire a conviction that, in 

addition to a tho7-ough grasp of a particular topic, its writer has at 

command a large stoi-e of reading and thought upon many cogitate points 

of ancient history arid geography.'" — Quarterly Review. 

Liverpool.— THE LIFE AND ADMINISTRATION OF 
ROBERT BANKS, SECOND EARL OF LIVERPOOL, K.G. 
Compiled from Original Family Documents by Charles Duke 
YONGE, Regius Professor of History and English Literature in 
Queen's College, Belfast ; and Author of " The History of the 
British Navy," "The History of France under the Bourbons," etc. 
Three vols. 8vo. 42^. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &^ TRAVELS. 13 



Since the time of Lord Burleigh no one, except the second Pitt, ever 
enjoyed so long a tenure of poxver ; with the same exception, no one ezcr 
held office at so critical a time .... Lord Liverpool is the very last 
minister tvho has been able feilly to carry out his oivn political vie7us ; vcJio 
has been so strong that in matters of general policy the Opposition coidd 
extort no concessions from him which were not sanctioned by his ozcn 
deliberate judgniait. The present work is founded almost entirely on the 
correspondence left behind him by Lord Liverpool, and 7tow in the possession 
of Colonel and Lady Catherine Harcourt. 

" Full of information and instruction." — FORTNIGHTLY Review. 

Macmillan (Rev. Hugh). — HOLIDAYS ON HIGH 
LANDS ; or, Raml^iles and Incidents in search of Alpine Plants. 
By the Rev. Hugh Macmillan, Author of "Bible Teachings in 
Nature," etc. Crown 8vo. cloth. 6s. 

" Botanical knowledge is blended with a love of nature, a pious en- 
thusiasm, and a rich felicity of diction not to be met with in any works 
oj kindred character, if we except those of Hugh Miller.''^ — Daily 
Telegraph. 

FOOT-NOTES FROM THE PAGE OF NATURE. ^Yith 
numerous Illustrations. Fcap. 8vo. ^s. 

" Those who have derived pleasure and pi-ofit from the study 0/ flozvers 
and ferns — subjects, it is pleasing to find, noiv everywhere popular — by 
descendi7ig lozuer into the arcana of the vegetable kingdom, ivill find a still 
more interesting and delightful field oj research in the objects brought under 
revie7v in the follonuing pages." — Preface. 

BIBLE TEACHINGS IN NATURE. Fifth Edition. Fcap. 
8vo. 6s. 

Martin (Frederick) — the STATESMAN'S YEAR-BOOK .- 

A Statistical and Historical Account of the States of the Civilized 
World. Manual for Politicians and Merchants for the year 1871. 
By Frederick Martin. Eighth Annual Publication. Crownr 
8vo. los. 6d. 

The neiv issue has been entirely re-written, revised, and corrected, on the 
basis of official reports received direct Jrom the heads of the leading Govern- 
ments of the World, in rtply to letters sent to them by the Editor. 



14 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Martin (Frederick).— (,w///7m^,^')— 

^'' Everybody who knows this work is aware that it is a book that is indiS' 
pensable to writers, financiers, politicians, statesmen, and all who are 
directly or indirectly interested in the political, social, industrial, com- 
viercial, and financial condition of their fellow-creatures at home and 
abroad. Mr. Martin deserves warm commendation for the care he takes 
in making ' The Statesman's Year Book'' complete and correct.'''' 

Standakp. 



HANDBOOK OF CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAniY. By 
Frederick Martin, Author of "The Statesman's Year-Bool<." 
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6j. 

Tliis volume is an attempt to produce a book of reference, furnishing in 
a condensed form some biog7-aphical paiiiciilars oj notable liv'ing men. 
The leading idea has been to give only facts, and those in the briefest form, 
and to exclude opinions. 



Martineau. — BiOGRAnilCAL sketches, 1852— i86S. 
By Harriet Martineau. Third and cheaper Edition, with 
New Preface. Crown 8vn. 6s. 

A Collection of Me»ioirs under these several sections: — (i) Royal, (2) 
Politicians, (3) Professional, (4) Scientific, (5) Social, (6) Literary. These 
Memoirs appeared originally in the columns of the " Daily News." 

Milton. — LIFE OF JOHN MILTON. Narrated in connexion 
with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his 
Time. By David Masson, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric 
at Edinburgh. Vol. I. with Portraits. 8vo. iSj. Vol. 11. in a 
few days. — Vol. HI. in the Press, 

// is intended to exhibit Milton's life in its connexions with all the more 
notable phenomeiur of the period of British history in zvhich it 7uas cast — 
its state politics, its ecclesiastical variations, its literature and speculative 
thought. Commencing in 1608, the Life of Milton proceeds through the 
last sixteen years of the reign of fames I. , incbuies the whole of the reign 
of Charles L and the subsequent years of the Commonwealth and the 
Protectorate, and then, passing the Restoration, extends itself to 1674, or 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &- TRAVELS. 15 



through fourteen years of the new state of things under Charles II. The 
first volume deals with the life of Milton as extending from 1608 to 1640, 
which was the period 0/ his education and of his minor poetns. 



Mitford (A. B),— tales OF OLD JAPAN. By A. B. 
MiTFORD, Second Secretary to the British Legation in Japan. 
With upwards of 30 Illustrations, di-awn and cut on Wood by 
Japanese Artists. Two vols, crown 8vo. 2\s. 

This work is an atte?nfit to do for Japan what SirJ. Davis, Dr. Lcgge, 
and M. Stanislas fulUn, have done for China. Under the influence oj 
more enlightened ideas and of a liberal system of policy, the old Japanese 
civilization is fast disappearing, and will, in a few years, be completely 
extinct. It was important, therefore, to preserve as far as possible trust- 
worthy records of a state of society luhich although venerable from its anti- 
quity, has for Europeajis the dawn of novelty ; hence the series of narra- 
tives and legends translated by Mr. Mitford, and in luhich the Japanese 
are very judiciously left to tell their own tale. The two volumes comprise 
not only stories and episodes illustrative of Asiatic superstitions, but also 
three sermons. The preface, appendices, and notes explain a number oj 
local peculiarities ; tJie thirty-one woodcuts are the genuine work of a native 
artist, who, uncotisciously oJ course, has adopted the process first introduced 
by the early German masters. 



Morley (John). — EDMUND BURKE, a Historical Study By 
John Morley, B.A. Oxon. Crown Svo. 7^. (>d. 

" The style is terse and incisive, and brilliant with epigram and point. 
It contains pithy aphoristic sentences which Burke himself would not have? 

Morison.-^THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SAINT BERNARD, 
Abbot of Claii-vaux. By James Cotter MoRisoN, M.A. New 
Edition, revised. Crown Svo. ^s. 6d. 

" One of the best contrikitions in our literature towards a vivid, intel- 
ligent, and worthy knotvledge of European interests and thoughts and 
feelings during the twelfth century. A delightful and instructive volume, 
and ene of the best products of the modern historic spirit.'" 

Pall Mall Gazette. 



i6 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



disowned. But these are not its best features : its sustained po7ver 0/ 
reasoning, its wide s'weep of observation and reflection, its elevated ethical 
and social tone, stamp it as a work of high excellence, and as such we 
cordially recommend it to our readers." — Saturday Review. 



Mullinger.— CAMBRIDGE CHARACTERISTICS IN THE 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By J. B. Mullinger, B.A. 
Crown 8vo. /\s. 6d. 

"It is a very entertaining and readable book." — Saturday Review. 

" The chapters on the Cartesian Philosophy and the Cambridge Platonists 
are ad7ni]'able." — Athen^um. 



Palgrave. — history of NORMANDY AND OF ENG- 
LAND. By Sir Francis Palgrave, Deputy Keeper of Her 
Majesty's Public Records. Completing the History to the Death 
of William Rufus. Four vols. Svo. £^ ^. 

Volume I. General Relations of AlediiEval Europe — The Carlovi.ngian 
Empire — The Danish Expeditions in the Gauls — And the Establishment 
of Rollo. Volume II. The Three First Dukes oj N'ormandy ; Rollo, 
Gtiillaume Longue-Epee, and Richard Sans-Peur — The Carlovingian 
line supplanted by the Capets. Volume III. Richard Sans-Peur — 
Richard Lc-Bon — Richard III. — Robert le Diable — ■WilUain the Con- 
queror. Volume IV. William Rufus — Accession of Henry Beattclerc. 

Palgrave (W. G.). — a narrative of a year's 

JOURNEY through CENTRAL AND EASTERN 
ARABIA, 1S62-3. By William Gifford Palgrave, late of 
the Eighth Regiment Bombay N. I. Fifth and cheaper Edition. 
With Maps, Plans, and Portrait of Author, engraved on steel by 
Jeens. Crown Svo. (>s. 

" Considering the extent ot our previous ignorance, the amount of his 
achievements, and the importance of his contributions to our knozoledge, we 
cannot say less of him than was once said of a far greater discoverer. 
Mr. Palgrave has indeed given a new world to Europe." 

. Pall Mall Gazette. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, <S-^ TRAVELS. 17 

Parkes (Henry). — Australian views of England. 

By Henry Parkes. Crown 8vo. cloth. t,s. 6d. 

" Tke foHou'iirg- Utters zoere written during a residence in England, in 
the years 1861 and 1862, and were published in the "Sydney Morning 
Herald" on the arrival of the monihiy mails .... On re-perusal, these 
letters appear to contain views of English life and impressions of English 
notabilities xohich, as the vieivs and impressions ot an Englishjnan on his 
return to his native country after an absence of tiventy years, may not be 
'without interest to the English reader. The writer had opportunities oj 
mixing with different classes of the British people, and of hearing opinions 
on passing events from opposite standpoints of obserziatien." — Author's 
Preface. 

Prichard.— THE administration of INDIA. From 
1859 to 1868. The First Ten Years of Adniinistration under the 
Crown. By Iltudus Thomas Prichard, Barrister-at-Law. 
Two vols. Demy 8vo. With Map. 21s, 

In these volumes the author has aimed to supply a full, impartial, and 
independent account of British India between 1859 and 1868 — luhich is 
in many respects the most important epoch in the history of that countiy 
which the present century has seen. 

Ralegh. — the life of sir Walter ralegh, based 

upon Contemporary Documents. By Edward Edwards. . To- 
gether with Ralegh's Letters, now first collected. With Portrait. 
Two vols. 8vo. 32j-. 

" Mr. Edwards has certainly written the Life of Ralegh Jrom fuller 
information than any previous biographer. He is intelligent, industrious, 
sympathetic : and tke world has in his two volumes . arger means afforded 
it of knowing Ralegh than it ever possessed before. The new lettirs a7td 
the nezvly-edited old letters are in themselves a boon." — Pall Mall 
Gazette. 



Robinson (Crabb).— diary, REMINISCENCES, and 

CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY CRABB ROBINSON. 
Selected and Edited by Dr. Sadler. With Portrait. Second 
Edition. Three vols. 8vo. cloth* 36^. 

B 



i8 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Mr. Crabb Robinson's Diary extends over the greater part of three- 
quarters 0/ a century. It contains personal reminiscences of some of the 
most tiisiinffnished characters of that period, including Goethe, Wieland, De 
Quincey, Wordstvorth (with zuhom Mr. Crabb Kobitison was on te^-ms oj 
^eat iiitimacy), Madame de Siael, Lafayette, Coleridge, La?7tb, Milman, 
dr'c. &'c. : and includes a vast variety of subjects, political, literary, ecclesi- 
astical, and miscellaneous. 

Rogers (James E. Thorold).— historical glean- 
ings : A Series of Sketches. Montague, Walpole, Adam Smith, 
Cobbett. By Professor Rogers. Crown 8vo. 4^. 6c/. 

Professor Rogers^ s object in the following sketches is to present a set oj 
historical facts, grouped round a principal figure. The essays are in the 
form of lectures. 

HISTORICAL GLEANINGS. Second Series. Crown 8vo. 6^. 

A cc^ipanion volume to the First Series recently published. It contains 
papers on VViklif, Laud, Wilkes, Home Tookc. In these lectures the 
author has aimed to state the social facts of the time in which the individual 
whose history is handled took pari in public business. 



Smith (Professor Goldwin). — three ENGLISH 
STATESMEN : PYM, CROMWELL, PITT. A Course of 
Lectures on the Political History of England. By Goldwin 
Smith, M. A. Extra fcap. 8vo. New and Cheaper Edition. 5^. 

"^ luo^-k which neither historian nor politician can safely afford to 
neglect.*' — Saturday Review. 

SYSTEMS OF LAND TENURE IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES. 
A Series of Essays published under the sanction of the Coudin 
Club. Demy Svo. Second Edition. \ls. 

The subjects treated are: — i. Tenure of Land in Ireland; 2. Land 
Laws of England ; 3. Tenure of Land in India ; 4. Land System of 
Belgium and Holland ; 5. Agrarian Legislation of Prussia during the 
Pr«int Centitry ; 6. Land System of France ; 7. Russian Agrarian 
Legislation of 1861 ; 8. Farm Land and Land Laws of the United 
States, 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &- TRAVELS. 19 

Tacitus. — THE HISTORY OF TACITUS, translated into 
English. By A. J. Church, M.A. and W. J. Brodribb, M.A. 
With a Map and Notes. 8vo. los. 6d. 

TJie translators have endeavoured to adhere as closely to the original as 
was thought consistent with a proper observance of English idiom. At 
the same tifne it has been their aim to reproduce the precise expressions of 
the author. This zvork is characterised by the Spectator as " a scholarly 
and faithful translation.'''' 

THE AGRICOLA AND GERMANIA. Translated into English by 
A. J. Church, M.A. and W. J. Brouribb, M.A. With Maps 
and Notes. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 

The translators have sought to produce such a version as may satisfy 
scholars ivho demand a faithful rendering of the original, and English 
readers who are oj^ended by the baldness and frigidity which covimonly 
disfigure translations. The treatises are accompanied by introductions, 
notes, maps, and a chronological sumtjiary. The Athenaeum says op 
this 'ivork that it is " a version at once readable and exact, which ynay be 
perused with pleasure by all, and consulted with advantage by the classical 
student.^' 

Taylor (Rev. Isaac).— WORDS and places; or 

Etymological Illustrations of History, Etymology, and Geography. 
By the Rev. Isaac Taylor. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 
1 2 J. 6d. 

" Mr. Taylor has produced a really useful book, and one which stands 
alone in our language." — Saturday Review. 

Trench (Archbishop).— gustavus ADOLPHUS : Social 
Aspects of the Thirty Years' War. By R. Chenevix Trench 
D.D., Archbishop of Dublin. Fcap, Bvo. 2s. 6d. 

" Clear and lucid in style, these lectures will be a treasure to many to 
whom the subject is unfamiliar.''' — DUBLIN Evening Mail. 

Trench (Mrs. R.). — Remains of the late Mrs. RICHARD 
TRENCH. Biing Selections from her Journals, Letters, and 
other Papers. Edited by Archbishop Trench. New and 
Cheaper Issue, vith Portrait, Svo. 6j-. 
13 2 



GENERAL CATALOGUE, 



Contains notices and anecdotes illustrating the social life of the period 
— extending over a qztarter of a century (1799 — 1827). It includes also 
pocfns and other miscellaneous pieces by Airs. Traich. 

Trench (Capt. F., F.R.G.S.).— the RUSSO-INDIAN 

QUESTION, Historically, Strategically, and Politically con- 
sidered. By Capt. Trench, F.R.G.S. With a Sketch of Central 
Asiatic Politics and Map of Central Asia. Crown 8vo. 'js. bd. 

" The Russo-Indian, or Central Asian question has for several obvious 
reasons bee?i attracting much public attention in England, in Russia, and 
also on the Cantinent, within the last year or two. . . . I have thought 
that the presetit volume, giving a short sketch of the history of this question 
from its earliest origin, and condensing jnuch of the most recent and inte- 
resting inforniatio7i on the subject, and on its collateral phases, might 
perhaps be acceptable to those who take an interest in it^ — Author's 
Preface, 

Trevelyan (G.O., M.P.). — CAWNPORE. illustrated with 
Plan. By G. O. Trevelyan, M.P., Author of "The Com- 
petition Wallah." Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6j. 
" In this book we are not spared one fact cf the sad story ; but aur 
feelings are not harrowed by the recital of itnaginary outrages. It is 
good for us at home that we have one w-ho tells his tale so %vell as does 
Mr. Trrc'elyan." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

THE COMPETITION WALLAH. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
" The earlier letters are especially interesting for their racy descriptions 

of European lije in India Those that jollcrw are of more serious 

import, seeking to tell the truth about the Hindoo character a7td English 
influences, good and bad, icpoii it, as well as to suggest some better course of 
treatment than that hitherto adopted.''^ — Examiner. 

Vaughan (late Rev. Dr. Robert, of the British 

Quarterly). — MEMOIR OF ROBERT A. VAUGHAN, 
Author of " Hours with the Mystics." By Robert Vaughan, 
D.D. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5^. 

" It dese)i<cs a place on the same shelf with Stanley's ' Life of Arnold,* 
and CarlyW s ^Stirling.'' Dr. Vaughan has performed his painful but 
not all unplcasing task with exquisite good taste and feeling.'''' — NONCON- 

I'ORMIST. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, &- TRAVELS. 21 

Wagner. — memoir of the rev. george wagner, 

M.A., late Incumbent of St. Stephen's Church, Brighton. By the 
Rev. J. N. SiMPKlNSON, M.A. Third and Cheaper Edition, cor- 
rected and abridged, 5^. 

"A more edifying biography we have rarely met 7vi/.h." — LITERARY 
Churchman 

Wallace.— THE Malay archipelago: the Land of the 
Orang Utan and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel 
with Studies of Man and Nature. By Alfred Russel Wallace. 
With Maps and Illustrations. Second Edition. Two vols, crown 
8vo. 245. 

"A cat-eMly and delihcrafcly composed narrative. . . . JVe advise 
cnir readers to do as we liave done, read his book throiigk." — Times. 

Ward (Professor). — the HOUSE OF AUSTRIA IN THE 
THIRTY YEARS' WAR. Two Lectures, with Notes and Illus- 
trations. By Adolphus W. Ward, M.A., Professor of History 
in Owens College, Manchester. Extra fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 

" Very compact and instructivey — Fortnightly Review. 

Warren.— AN essay on greek federal coinage. 

By the Hon. J. Leicester Warren, M.A. 8vo. 2j. ()d. 

" The present essay is an attempt to illustrate Mr. Freeman^ s Federal 
Govei'nment by ez'idence deduced from the coinage of tJie times and countries 
therein treated of ." — Preface. 

Wedgwood— JOHN WESLEY AND THE EVANGELICAL 
REACTION of the Eighteenth Century. By Julia Wedgwood. 
Crown 8vo. Zs. 6d. 

This book is an attempt to delineate t/ie influeiiee of a particular man 
upon his age. 

Wilson.— A MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON, M. D., 
F. R.S.E., Regius Professor of Technology in the University of 
Edinburgli. By his Sister. New Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s. 
" An exquisite and touching portrait of a 7'are and beautiful spirit. "" — 

Guardian. 



GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Wilson (Daniel, LL.D.).— prehistoric annals 
OF SCOTLAND. By Daniel Wilson, LL.D., Professor of 
History and English Literature in University College, Toronto. 
New Edition, with numerous Illustrations. Two vols, demy 
8vo. 36j-. 

This elaborate atid learned work is divided into four Parts. Part I. 
deals with The Primeval or Stone Period : Aboriginal Traces, Sepulchral 
Memorials , Dzvellings, and Catacombs, Temples, Weapons, &^c. dr'c. ; 
Part II., The Bronze Period : The Metallurgic Transition, Primitive 
Bronze, Personal Ornaments, Religion, Arts, and Domestic Habits, with 
ether topics ; Part III., The Iron Period : The introduction of Iron, The 
Roman Invasion, Strongholds, Sr^c. dr'c.; Part IV., The Christian Period : 
Historical Data, the No7-rie''s Law Relics, Pritnitive aftd Medieval 
Ecclcsiology, Ecclesiastical and Miscellaneous Antiquities. The work is' 
furnished zvith an elaborate Index. 



PREHISTORIC MAN. New Edition, revised and partly re- written, 
with numerous Illustrations. One vol. 8vo. 2is. 

This work, which carries out the principle of the preceditig one, but with 
a wider scope, aims to " vieiv Man, as far as possible, Ufiaj^ected by those 
modifying influences zvhich accompany the development of natiotis and the 
maturity of a true historic period, in order thereby to ascertain the sources 
from zvhence such develop7nent and maturity proceed." It contains, for 
example, chapters on the Primeval Transition ; Speech ; Metals ; the 
Mound-Builders ; Primitive Architecture ; the A7nerican Type; the Red 
Blood of the IVest, &^c. &'c. 



CHATTERTON : A Biographical Study. By Daniel Wilson, 
LL.D., Professor of History and English Literature in University 
College, Toronto. Crown 8vo. 6s. 6d. 

The Author here 7-egards Chatta-toi as a Poet, 7iot as a ^^ 77ie7-e resetter 
and defacer of stolen literary treasures. " Revieiued in this light, he has 
found 7/1 uch ?'« the old i7iaterials capable of bei7ig turned to 7iew accou7it : 
a7id to these materials resea7-ch i7i 7>arious di7-ectio7ts has e/uibled him to 
7/iake so7nc additions. 



HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, <&- TRAVELS. 23 



Yonge (Charlotte M.)— a PARALLEL HISTORY OF 

FRANCE AND ENGLAND: consisting of Outlines and Dates. 

By Charlotte M, Yonge, Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe," 

"Cameos from English History," &c. &c. Oblong 4to, 3j-. 6</, 

This tabular history has been drawn up to supply a want felt by many 

teachers of some means of making their pupils realize what events in tfu 

two countries were contemporary. A skeleton narrative has been constructed 

of the chief transactions ijt either country, placing a column betiveen for 

what affected both alike, by which means it is hoped that young people may 

be assisted in grasping the mutual relation of events. 



SECTION II. 

POETRY AND BELLES LETTRES. 

Allingham.— LAURENCE BLOQMFIELD in IRELAND; 
or, the New Landlord. By William Allingham. New and 
Cheaper Issue, with a Preface. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, 45. 6d. 

Jn the new Preface, the state of Ireland, with special reference to the 
Church measure, is discussed. 

' ' It is vital loith the national character. . . . It has something of Pope's 
point and Goldsmith'' s simplicity^ touched to a more modern isstte." — 

Athen^um. 

Arnold (Matthew). — poems. By Matthew Arnold. 
Two vols. Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth. 12s. Also sold separately at 6j. 
each. 

Volume I. Contains Narrative and Elegiac Poems ; Volume II. Dra- 
matic and Lyric Poems. The two volumes comprehend the First and 
Second Series of the Poems, and the New Poe?ns. 

NEW POEMS. Extra fcap. 8vo, bs. 6d 

In this volume will be found " Empedocles on Etna ;"" Thyrsis " (written 
in coDimetnoration oj the late Professor Clough) ; " Epilogue to Lessings 
Laocobn ;'" '■^Heine's Grave;" '^ Obermann once viore." All these 
poems are also included in the Edition {two vols.) above-mentioned. 

ESSAYS IN CRITICISM. New Edition, with Additions. Extra 
fcap. 8vo. 6s. 
Contents : — Preface ; The Fnticlion of Criticism at the present time; 
The Literary Infliunce of Academies ; Maurice de Guerin ; Eugenie 
de Guerin ; Ileinrich Hine ; Pagan and Media^al Religious Sentiment; 
jfcubeit : Sfi/ioza and the Bible ; Marcus Aiirelius. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETTRES. 25 



ASPROMONTE, AND OTHER POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. cloth 
extra. 4?. dd. 

Contents : — Poems for Italy; Dramatic Lyrics; Miscellaneous. 

"Uncommon lyrical fo7vef and deep poetic feeling." —'LiTK^AViY 
Churchman. 



Barnes (Rev. W.). — poems of rural life in com- 
mon ENGLISH. By the Rev. W. Baknes, Author of 
" Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect." Fcap. 8vo. 6s. 

" In a high degree pleasant and novel. The book is by no means one 
which the lovers of descriptive poetry can afford to lose." — Athenaeum. 

Bell.— ROMANCES AND MINOR POEMS. Ey Henry 
Glassford Bell. Fcap. 8vo. 6s. 

" Pull of life and gefiius^ — COURT CIRCULAR. 

Besant. — studies in early French poetry. By 

Walter Besant, M.A. Crown. 8vo. 8j. 6d. 

A sort oj impressiott rests on most minds that French literature begins 
with the ^^ siecle de Louis Quatorze;" any preznous literature being for 
the most part uftknozvn or ignored. Pew know anything of the enormous 
literary activity that began in the thirteenth century, was carried on by 
Rulebeuf Marie de Prance, Gaston de Foix, Thibault de Champagne, 
and Lorris ; was fostered by Charles of Orleans, by Margaret of Valois, 
by Francis the First ; that gave a cro%ud of versifiers to Prance, enriched, 
strengthened, developed, and fixed the French language, and prepared the 
way for Corneille and for Racine. The presetit work aims to afford 
information and direction touching the early efforts of France in poetical 
literature. 

" In one moderately sized volume he has contrived to introduce us to the 
very best, if not to all of the early French poets.'" — Athen^BUM. 

Bradshaw.— AN ATTEMPT TO ascertain THE STATE 
OF CHAUCER'S WORKS, AS THEY WEPE LEFT AT 
HIS DEATH. With some Notes of their Subsequent History. 
By Henry Bradshaw, of King's College, and the University 
Library, Cambridge. In the Press. 



26 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Brimley.— ESSAYS BY THE LATE GEORGE BRIMLEY, 
M.A. Edited by the Rev. W. G. Clark, M.A. With Portrait. 
Cheaper Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 35. dd. 

Essays on literary topics, such as Tennyson s ^^ Poems," Carlyle's 
''^ Life of Stii'ling,'" ''Bleak House,'''' ^^c, reprinted from Fxa.sQr, the 
Spectator, atid like periodicals. 

Broome. — the stranger of SERIPHOS. a Dramatic 
Poem. By FREDEracK Napier Broome. Fcap. 8vo. <,s. 

Founded on the Greek legend of Danae and Perseus. 

'■'■Grace aiid beauty oj expression are Mr. Bjvome's ckaractertstics ; 
and these qualities are displayed in many passages.'^ — Athen^uM. 

Church (A.J.).— HOR^ TENNYSONIAN.^, Sive Eclogse 
e Tcnnysono Latine redditte. Cura A. J. Church, A.M. 
Extra fcap. 8vo. 6^. 

Latin versions op Selections from Tennyson. Among the authors are 
the Editor, the late Professor Coningion, Professor Seeley, Dr. Llessey, 
Mr. Kebbel, and other gentlemen. 

Clough (Arthur Hugh).— THE POEMS AND PROSE 
REMAINS OF ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH. With a 
Selection from his Letters and a Memoir. Edited by his Wife. 
With Portrait. Two vols, crown 8vo. lis. Or Poems sepa- 
rately, as below. 

The late Professor Clough is well known as a graceful, tender poet, 
and as the scholarly trar.slator of Plutarch. The letters possess high 
interest, not biographical only, but literary — discussing, as they do, the 
most important question r of the time, ahvays in a genial spirit. The 
"Remains'" include papers on " Retrenchment at Oxford;''' on Professor 
L\ W. A^e^vmati's book " The Soul ; " on IVordstvorth ; on the Formation 
of Classical English ; on some Modern Poctns {Mattliew Arnold and the 
late Alexander S^nith), 6-v. cSt-v. 

THE POEMS OF ARTHUR HUGH CLOUGH, sometime Fellow 
of Oriel College, Oxford. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. Q>s. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETTRES. 27 



" From the higher mind of cultivated, all-questioning, but still conser- 
vative England, in this our puzzled generation, we do not knotv of any 
utterance in literature so characteristic as the poems of Arthur Hugh 
Clough." — Eraser's Magazine. 

Dante. — DANTE'S comedy, the hell. Translated by 
W. M. RossETTl. Fcap. 8vo. cloth, ^s. 

" The aim of this translation of Dante may be summed up in one word 
— Literality. . . . To follow Dante sentence for sentence, line for line, 
word for loord—neither more nor less — has been my strenuous endeavour ," 
— Author's Preface. 

De Vere. — the infant bridal, and other Poems. By 
Aubrey De Vere. Fcap. 8vo. 7^. ()d. 
*^ J\Tr. De Vere has taken his place among the poets of the day. Pure 
and tender feeling, and that polished restraint of style which is called 
classical, are the charms of the volume.'''' — SPECTATOR. 

Doyle (Sir F. H.). — Works by Sir Francis Hastings Doyle, 
Professor of Poetry in the University of Oxford :. — 

the return of the guards, and other POEMS. 
Fcap. 8vo. 7J-. 
" Good wine needs no bush, nor good verse a preface ; and Sir Francis 
Doyle^s verses run bright and clear, and sfiiack of a classic vitttage. . . . 
His chief characteristic, as it is his greatest charm, is the simple manliness 
which gives force to all he writes. It is a characteristic in these days rare 
enough. " — Examiner. 

LECTURES ON POETRY, delivered before the University of 
Oxford in 1868. Crown 8vo. 3^. 6d. 

Three Lectures :— (i) Inaugural ; (2) Provincial Poetry ; (3) Dr. ' 
Ne^vman^s '■''Dream of Gerontius." 

"Full of thoughtful discrimiitation and fine insight: the lecture on 
' Provincial Poetry'' seems to us s'mgularly true, eloquent, and instructive^ 
— Spectator. 

Evans. — brother fabian'S manuscript, and 

OTHER POEMS. By Sebastian Evans. Fcap. 8vo. cloth. 
6j. 



28 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



" In this volume we have full assurance that he has ' the vision and the 
faculty divine. ^ , . . Clever and full of /cindly humour." — Globe. 

Furnivall. — LE MORTE D'ARTHUR. Edited from the Harleian 
M.S. 2252, in the British Museum. By F. J. Furnivall. M.A. 
With Essay by the late Herbert Coleridge. Fcap. 8vo. Is.dd. 

Looking to the interest shoiun by so many thousands in RTr. Tennyson^s 
Arthurian foems, the editor and publishers have thought that the old 
version would possess considerable interest. It is a reprint of the celebrated 
Harleian copy ; and is accompanied by index and glossary. 

Garnett. — idylls and epigrams, chiefly from the Greek 
Anthology. By Richard Garnett. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d. 

"A charming little book. For English readers, Mr. Gar net fs transla^ 
lations will open a new world of thought." — Westminster Review. 

guesses at truth. By Two Brothers. With Vignette, 
Title, and Frontispiece. New Edition, with Memoir. Fcap. 8vo. 6^. 

" The following year was metnorable tor the cotmnencenient oj the 
' Guesses at Truth. ' He and his Oxford brother, living as they did in 
constant and free interchange of thought on questions of philosophy arid 
literature and art ; delighting, each of them, in the epigrammatic terseness 
which is the charm oj the ' Pensecs ' of Pascal, and the ' Caracteres ' of La 
Bruyere — agreed to utter themselves in this form, and the book appeared, 
anonymously, in two volumes, in 1827." — Memoir. 

Hamerton. — a painter's camp. By Philip Gilbert 
Hamerton. Second Edition, revised. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 

Book I. In England; Book II. In Scotland ; IJooK III. In France. 
This is the story of an Artist''s encampments and adventures. The 
headings of a feiv chapters may serve to convey a notion of the character 
of the book : A Walk on the Lancashire Moors ; the Author his own 
Housekeeper and Cook ; Tents and Boats for the Highlands ; The Author- 
encamps on an uninhabited Island ; A Lake Voyage ; A Gipsy Journey 
to Gle^i Coe ; Concerning Moonlight and Old Castles ; A little French 
City ; A Farm in the Autunois, <Sr=r. &'c. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETTRES. 



" His pages sparkle with many turns of expression, not afezv well-told 
anecdotes, and many obseivations ivhich are the frutt of attentive study and 
wise reflection on the cofuplicated phenomena of human life, as well as op 
unconscious nature^ — Westminster Review. 

ETCHING AND ETCHERS. A Treatise Critical and Practical. 
By P. G. Hamerton. With Original Plates by Rembrandt, 
Callot, Dujardin, Paul Potter, &c Royal 8vo. Half 
morocco. 31J. bd, 

^^ It is a work of which author, printer, and publisher may alike feel 
proud. It is a work, too, of which none but a genuine artist could bv 
possibility have been the author^ — Saturday Review. 

Herschel. — the ILIAD of homer. Translated into English 
Hexameters. By Sir John Herschel, Bart. 8vo. i8j. 

A version of the Iliad in English Hexameters. The question of Homeric 
translation is fully discussed in the Preface. 

^^ It is admirable, not only for many intrinsic merits, but as a great 
man^s tribute to Genius." — Illustrated London News. 

HIATUS : the Void in Modern Education. Its Cause and Antidote. 
By OuTis. 8vo. ?,s. 6d. 

The main object of this Essay is to point out how the emotional element 
which underlies the Fine Arts is disregarded and undeveloped at this time 
so far as [despite a pretence at filling it up) to constitute an Educational 
Hiatus. 

Huxley (Professor). — LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, 
AND REVIEWS. By T. H. Huxley, LL.D., F.R.S. 
Second and Cheaper Edition, crown 8vo. "js. 6d. 

Fourteen discourses on the following subjects : — O71 the Advisableness of 
Improving Natural Knowledge Emaftcipation — Black and White ; A 
Liberal Education, ana where 10 find it ; Scientific Education ; on the 
Educational Value oj the Natural History Sciences ; on the Study of 
Zoology ; on the Physical Basis of Life ; the Scientific Aspects of Posi- 
tivism ; on a Piece of Chalk ; Geological Contemporaneity and Persistent 
Types of Life ; Geological Reform ; the Origin of Species ; Criticisms en 
the " Origin of Species ; " on Descartes' " Discourse touching the Method 
oj using one's Riiason rightly and of seeking Scientific Truth." 



30 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



ESSAYS SELECTED FROM LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, 
AND REVIEWS. Crown 8vo. Cloth. 2J. 

Whilst publishing a second edition of his Lay SenTions, Addresses, and 
Reviews, Professor Huxley has, at the suggestion of many friends, issued 
tn a cheap and popular form the selection we are now noticing. It includes 
the following essays : — ( i ) 0)i the Advisableness of Improving Natural 
Knowledge. (2) A Liberal Education, and wJiere to find it. (3) Scientific 
Education, notes of an after-dinner speech. (4) On the Physical Basis of 
Life. (5) The Scientific Aspects of Positivism. (6) On Descartes' '^Dis- 
course touching the Method of using onis Reason Rightly and of seeking 
Scientific Truth." 

Kennedy. — LEGENDARY fictions of the IRISH 
CELTS. Collected and Narrated by Patrick Kennedy. Crown 
8vo. With Two Illustrations, 'js. 6d. 

*'A very admirable popular selection of the Irish fairy stories and legends, 
in which those tvho are familiar with Mr. Croker^s, and other selections 
of the same kind, will find much that is fresh, and full of the peculiar 
vivacity and humour, and sometimes even of the ideal beautv, of the true 
Celtic Legend."— Sfectator. 

Kingsley (Canon). — See also "Historic Section," "Works 
OF Fiction," and "Philosophy;" also "Juvenile Books," 
««r/" Theology." 

THE SAINTS* TRAGEDY : or, The True Story of Elizabeth of 
Hungary. By the Rev. Charles Kingsley. With a Preface by 
the Rev. F. D. Maurice. Third Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5^. 

ANDROMEDA, AND OTHER POEMS. Third Edition. Fcap. 
8vo. Si'. 

PIIAETHON ; or, Loose Thoughts for Loose Thinkers. Third 
Edition. Crown Svo. 2s. 

Lowell (Professor). — among my books. Six Essays. 
By James Russell Lowe'X, M.A., Professor of Belles Lettres 
in Harvard C'ollege. Crown Svo. 7?. bd. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETTRES. 31 



Six Essays: Dryden ; Witchcraft; Shakespeare Once More ; Nau 
England Tiuo Centuries ago; Lessing ; Rousseau and the Senti- 
mentalists. 

UNDER THE WILLOWS, AND OTHER POEMS. By James 
Russell Lowell. Fcap. 8vo. 6^. 

" Under the Willows is one oj the most admirable bits of idyllic zuork, 
short as it is, or perhaps because it is short, that have been done in our gene- 
ration^ — Saturday Review. 

Masson (Professor).— essays, biographical and 

CRITICAL. Chiefly on the British Poets. By David Masson, 
LL.D., Professor of Rhetoric "in the University of Edinburgh. 
8vo. lis. 6d. 

" Distin^ished by a remarkable potver of analysis, a clear statement 
0/ the actual pacts on which specidation is based, and an app7-opi-iate 
beauty of language. These essays should be popular with serious me ft." — 
Athen.^um. 

BRITISH NOVELISTS AND THEIR STYLES. Being a Critical 
Sketch of the History of British Prose Fiction. Crown 8vo. ^s. 6d. 

" Valuable for its lucid analysis of fundatnental principles, its breadth 
of view, and sustained animation 0/ sfyle.^' — Spectator. 

MRS. JERNINGHAM'S JOURNAL. Second Edition. E.xtra fcap. 
Svo. 3J-. 6d. A Poem of the boudoir or domestic class, purporting 
to be the journal of a newly-married lady. 

" One quality in the piece, sufficient 0/ itself to claim a tnoment's atten- 
tion, is that it is unique — original, indeed, is not too strong a ivord — in 
the manner of its conception and execution." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Mistral (F.).—MIRELLE: a Pastoral Epic of Provence. Trans- 
lated by II. Criciiton. Extra fcap. Svo. 6^-. 

" This is a capital translation of the elegant and richly-coloured pastoral 
epic poem of M. Mistral which, in 1859, he dedicated in enthusiastic 

terms to Lamartine. It would be hard to overpraise th^ 

siveetncss and pleasing freshness of this charming epic." — Athen^^sum, 



33 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 

Myers (Ernest). — the puritans. By Ernest Myers. 
Extra fcap. 8vo. cloth. 2s. bd, 

" It is not too much to call it a really grand poem, stately and dignified, 
and s/iozving not only a high poetic mind, but also great power over poetic 
expression." — Literary Churchman. 

Myers (F. W. H.). — Poems. By F. W. H, Myers. Extra 

fcap. 8vo. 4r. 6d. Coiitaining "ST. PAUL," "St. JOHN," and 

other Poems. 

".S*/. Paul stands witkout a rival as the noblest rdigioiis poem which 

has been written in a7i age luhich beyond any other has been prolific in this 

class of poetry. The sublimcst conceptions are expressed in language which 

for richness, taste, and purity, we have never seen excelled^ — ^JoHN Bull. 

Nettleship. — essays on Robert browning's 

POETRY. By John T. Nettleship. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 6d. 

Noel. — BEATRICE, AND OTHER POEMS. By the Hon. 
RoDEN Noel. Fcap. 8vo. 6^. 
"Beatrice is in many respects a noble poem; it displays a splendour 
of landscape painting, a strong definite precision oj highly-coloured descrip- 
tion, which has 7iot often been surpassed.'^ — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Norton. — the lady of la GARAYE. By the Hon. Mrs. 
Norton. With Vignette and Frontispiece. Sixth Edition. 
Fcap. 8vo. 4^. 6d. 
" There is no lack of vigour, no faltering of power, plenty of passion, 
much bright description, 7nuch musical verse. . . . Full of thoughts well- 
expressed, and may be classed among her best works." — TiMES. 

Orwell.— THE BISHOP'S WALK AND THE BISHOP'S 
TIMES. Poems on the days of Archbishop Leighton and the 
Scottish Covenant. By Orwell. Fcap. 8vo. $s. 
"Pure taste and faultless precision of language, the fruits oJ deep thought, 

insight into human nature, and lively sympathy." — NONCONFORMIST. 

Palgrave (Francis T.). — ESSAYS ON ART. By Francis 
Turner Palgrave, M.A., late Fellow of Exeter College, 
Oxford. Extra fcap. 8vo. 6s. 
Mulready — Dyce — Holman Hunt — Herbert — Poetry, Prose, and Sen- 
sationalism in Art— Sculpture in England— The Albert Cross, ^'c. 



POETRY b' BELLES LETTRES. 33 

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS AND SONGS. Edited by F. T. 
Palgrave. Gem Edition. With Vignette Title by Jeens. y.bd. 

" For jniincte elegance no vchime could possibly excel the ' Gem 
Edition.' " — Scotsman. 

ORIGINAL HYMNS. By F. T. Palgrave. Third Edition, en- 
larged, i8mo. Is. 6d. 

LYRICAL POEMS. By F. T. Palgrave. [Nearly ready. 

Patmore. — Works by Coventry Pat.more : — 
THE ANGEL IN THE HOUSE. 

Book I. 77ie Betrothal ; Book II. The Espousals ; Book III. 
Faithful for Ever. With Tamerfon Church Toiver. Two vols. Fcaf. 
8t'£7. I2J-. 

*#* A Nei.v a7id Cheap Edition in one vol. i %mo. , beaiitiftilly printed 
on toned paper, price 2s. 6d. 

THE VICTORIES OF LOVE. Fcap. 8vo. 4^-. 6d. 

The intrinsic merit of his poem will secure it a permanent place in 
literature. . . . Mr. Fatmore has fully earjied a place in the catalogue 
of poets by the finished idealization of domestic life." — Saturday 
Review. 

Pember (E. H.). — THE TRAGEDY OF LESBOS. A 
Dramatic Poem. By E. H Pember. Fcap. Svo. 4!-. 6d. 

Founded upon the story of Sappho. 

Richardson. — the ILIAD OF THE east, a Selection 
of Legends drawn from Valmiki's Sanskrit Poem "The Ram- 
ayana." By Frederika Richardson. Crown Svo. 7j. 6d. 
' ' A charming volume ivhich at once enmeshes the reader in its snares, " 

— Athen/eum. 

Rhoades (James). — poems. By James Rhoades. Fcap. 
Svo. 4^. 6d. 
Poems and Sonnets. Cofitents : — Ode to Harmony ; To the Spirit 
of Unrest ; Ode to Winter ; The Twinel ; To the Spirit of Beauty; 
Song of ci Leaf; By the Botha ; An Old Orchard ; Love and Best ; The 
Flowers Surprised ; On the Death of Arlemus Ward ; The Two Paths ; 
The Ballad of Little Maisie ; Sonnets. 

c 



34 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



Rossetti. — Works by Christina Rossetti : — 

GOBLIN MARKET, AND OTHER POEMS. With two Designs 
by D. G. Rossetti. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5^. 

"She handles her little marvel with that rare poetic discriminatioii which 
neither exhausts it of its simple zvonders by pushing symbolism too far, nor 
keeps those wonders in the merely fabulous and capricious stage. In fact 
she has produced a true children's poem, xvhich is far more delightful to 
the mdture than to children, though it would be delightful to all." — 
Spectator. 

THE PRINCE'S .PROGRESS, AND OTHER POEMS. With 
two Designs by.D. G. Rossetti. Fcap. 8vo. 6s. 

" Miss RossettV s poems are of the kind which recalls Shelleyi's definition 
of Poetry as the record of the best and happiest moments of the best and 
happiest minds. . . . They are like the piping of a bird on the spray in 
the sunshine, or the quaint singing with which a child amuses itself when 
it forgets that anybody is listening.'''' — SATURDAY REVIEW. 

Rossetti (W. M.).— DANTE'S HELL, i"^^ "Dante." 

FINE ART, chiefly Contemporaiy. By William M. Rossetti. 
Crown 8vo. ioj. dd. 

This volume consists oj Criticism on Contemporary Art, 7-eprinted 
from Eraser, The Saturday Review, The Pall Mall Gazette, and other 

publications. 

Roby.— STORY OF A HOUSEHOLD, AND OTHER POEMS. 
By Mary K. Roby. Fcap. 8vo. 5^-. 

Seeley (Professor). — lectures and essays. By 

J. R. Seeley, M.A. Professor of Modern History in the 

University of Cambridge. 8vo. \os. 6d. 
Contents : — Roman Imperialism : i. The Great Ro/nan Rez'olution ; 
2. The Proximate cause of the Fall efthe Roman Empire ; 3. The Letter 
Empire.— Milton's Political Opinions — Milton's Poetry — Elementary 
Principles in Art — Liberal Educatioti in Universities— English in 
Schools— The Church as a Teacher »f Morality — The Teaching of 
Politics : an Inaugural Lecture delivered at Cambridge. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETT RES. 35. 

Shairp (Principal).— KILMAHOE, a Highland Pastoral, with 
other Poems. By John Campbell Shairp. Fcap. 8vo. 5^. 

" Kilmahoe is a Highland Pastoral, redolent of the warm soft air oj 
the Western Lochs and Moors, sketched out with remarkable grace and 
picturesquenessy — Saturday Review. 

Smith. — Works by Alexander Smith : — 

A LIFE DRAMA, AND OTHER POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. 2s. 6d 

CITY POEMS. Fcap. 8vo. Sj-. 

EDWIN OF DEIRA. Second Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 5^. 

A foem tvhich is marked by the strength, sustained sweetness, and 
compact texture of real lifey — North British Review. 

Smith. — POEMS. By Catherine Barnard Smith. Fcap. 
8vo. 5^. 

" Wealthy in feeling, meaning, finish, and grace ; not without passion, 
which is suppressed, but the keener for that." — Athen.«UM. 

Smith (Rev. Walter). — HYMNS OF CHRIST AND THE 
CHRISTIAN LIFE. By the Rev. Walter C. Smith, M.A. 
Fcap. 8vo. ds. 

" These are among the sweetest sacred poems zve have read for a long 
Ctme. With no profuse imagery, expressing a range of feeling and 
expression by no means unco?iwion, they are true and elevated, and their 
tathos is profound and simple^ — NONCONFORMIST. 

Stratford de Redcliffe (Viscount). — SHADOWS OF 
THE PAST, in Verse. By ViscouNT Stratford de Red- 
cliffe. Crown 8vo. \os. 6d. 

" The vigorous words of one who has acted vigorously. They combine 
thejtrveur of politicians and poet." — Guardian. 



36 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 

Trench. — Works by R. Chenevix Trench, D.D., Archbishop 
of Dublhi. See also Sections "Philosophy," " Theology," &c. 

POEMS. Collected and arranged anew. Fcap. 8vo. "js. Gil. 

ELEGIAC POEMS. Thh-d Edition. Fcap. 8vo. 2^. 6d. 

CALDERON'S LIFE'S A DREAM : The Great Theatre of the 
World. With an Essay on his Life and Genius. Fcap. 8vo. 
4^. 6d. 

HOUSEHOLD BOOK OF ENGLISH POETRY. Selected and 
arranged, with Notes, by R. C. Trench, D.D., Archbishop of 
Dublin. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. 5j. 6d. 

This volume is called a " HotiseJiold Book" by this name imj>lying that 
it i? a book for all — that there is nothing in it to prevent it frotn being 
co7ifidently placid in the hands of every jnember of the household. Sped- 
mens of all classes of poetry are given, including selections from, living 
authors. The Editor has aimed to pjvduce a book ' ' which the emigraiit, 
finding room for little not absolutely necessary, might yei fina room for 
in his trunk, and the traveller in his knapsack, and that on sofne narrovj 
shelves where there are few books this might be one." 

" The Archbishop has conferred in this delightfid volume an important 
gift on the tvhole English-speaking population of the 7Vorld." — Pat.L 
Mall Gazette. 

SACRED LATIN POETRY, Chiefly Lyrical. Selected and arranged 
for Use. Second Edition, Corrected and Improved. Fcap. 8vo. 

' ' The aim of the present volume is to ofer to members cf our English 
Church a collection of the best sacred Latitt poetry, such as thev shall be 
able entirely and heartily to accept and approve— a collection, that is, in which 
they shall not be ez'ermore liable to be offeiided, and to have the current oj 
their sympathies checked, by coming upon that which, ho^vevcr beautiful as 
poetry, out of hii^hcr respects they must reject andconde7nn — in which, too, 
they shall not fear tJiat snares are being laid for tJiem, to entangle tJiem 
unawares in admiration for augJit zvJiich is inconsistent with their faith 
and fealty to their own spiritual motlier" — Preface. 

Turner. — sonnets. By the Rev. Charles Tennyson 
Turner. Dedicated to his brother, the Poet Laureate. Fcap. 
8vo. i,s. 6d. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETTRES. 37 



'' The Sonnets are dedicated to Mr. Tennyson bv his b7-other, atid luivc, 
independently of their merits, an interest of association. They both love to 
write in simple expressive Saxon; both love to touch their imagery in 
epithets rather than in formal similes ; both have a delicate perception 
of rhythmical moveme7it, and thus Mr. Turner has occasional lines which, 
for phrase and music, might be ascribed to his brother. . . He knozvs the 
haunts of the wild rose, the shady nooks where light qitivers through the 
leaves, the riiralitics, in short, of the land of imagination." — Athen^UM. 

SMALL TABLEAUX. Fcap. 8vo. 4^. (id. 

" These brief poems have not only a peculiar kind of interest for the 
student oj English poetty, but are intrinsically delightful, and will reward 
a careful and frequent perusal. Full of naivete, piety, love, and knowledge 
of natural objects, and each expi-essing a single and generally a simple 
subject by means of minute and original pictorial touches, these sonnets 
have a place of their own." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Vittoria Colonna. — life AND POEMS. By Mrs. Henry 
RoscOE. Crown 8vo. 9J. 

The life of Vittoria Colonna, the celebrated Marchesa di Pescara, has 
received but cursory notice from any English writer, though in every 
history of Italy her name is mentioned with great honour among the poets 
of the sixteenth centujy. "In three hundred and ffty years," says her 
biographer, Visconti, ^^ there has been no other Italian lady ivho can be 
cotnpartd to her." 

^' It is zaritten with good taste, with quick and intelligent sympathy, 
occasionally with a real freshness and charm of style." — Pall Mall 
Gazette. 

Webster. — Works by Augusta Webster :— 

" 1/ Mrs. Webster only remains true to herself, she will assuredly 
take a higher rank as a poet than any woman has yet done." — 
Westminster Review. 

DRAMATIC STUDIES. Extra fcap. 8vo, Ss. 

"A volume as strongly marked by perfect taste as by poetic power." — ■ 
Nonconformist. 

PROMETHEUS BOUND OF -^SCHYLUS. Literally irin-,'a e 
into English Verse. Extra fcap. 8vo. 3j-. 6(/. 
" Closeness and simplicity co7nbined with literary skill." — Athsx.ejm 



38 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 



' ' Mrs. Wedsie/s ' Dramatic Studies ' and ' Translation of Prome- 
theus^ have won for her an honou7-able place a?nong our Jetnale poets. 
She writes with remarkable vigour and dramatic realization, and bids fair 
to be the }?iost successful claitnantoj Mrs. Brownings mantle.''' — British 
Quarterly Review. 

MEDEA OF EURIPIDES. Literally translated into English Verse. 
Extra fcap. 8vo. 3^. 6a'. 
"Mrs. Webster's translation surpasses our tttmost expectatiotis. It is a 
phottgraph oj the original without any of that harshness which so ofteti 
accompanies a photograph."— V^Y.^y^it^ST^K Review. 

A WOMAN SOLD, AND OTHER POEMS. Crown 8vo. ^s. dd. 
"Mrs. Webster has shown us that she is able to draw admirably frotyi 
the life ; that she can observe with subtlety, and render her observations 
with delicacy ; that she can impersonate complex conceptions, and venture 
into which few living writers can follow her." — Guardian. 

PORTRAITS. Second Edition. Extra fcap. 8vo. ^s. 6d. 

'^ Mrs. Webster's poems exhibit simplicity and tenderness . . . her 
taste is perfect . . . This simplicity is combined with a sttbtlety of thought, 
feeling, and observation which demand that attention which only real 
lovers of poetry are apt to bestow. . . . If she onlv remains true to herself 
she will most assuredly take a higher rank as a poet than any woman has 
yet done. " — Westminster Review. 

' ' With this volume before us it would be hard to deny her the proud 
position of tJie first living Eiiglish poetesr." — Examiner. 

^Voodward (B. B., F.S. A.). —specimens of the 

DRAWINGS OF TEN MASTERS, from the Royal Collection 
at Windsor Castle. With Descriptive Text by the late B. B. Wood- 
ward, B.A. , F.S. A., Librarian to the Queen, and Keeper of 
Prints and Drawings. Illustrated by Twenty Autotypes by 
Edwards and Kidd. In 4to. handsomely bound, price 25^-. 
Thisvolume contains facsimiles of theworks of Michael Angelo, Perugitio, 
Raphael, fulio Romano, Leonardo da Vinci, Giorgione, Paul Veronese, 
Poussin, Albert Diirer, Holbein, executed by the Autotype i^Carbon) process, 
wfiichmay be accepted as, so far, peifect representations of the originals. In 
most cases some rcductian in size was 7iecessary, and then the dimensions 
of the drawing itself have been given. Brief biographical me7noranda of 
the lije of each master are inserted, solely to prevent the need of reference 
to other zvorks. 



POETRY &- BELLES LETTRES. 39 

Woolner.— MY BEAUTIFUL LADY. By Thomas ^VooLNER. 
With a Vignette by Arthur Hughes. Third Edition. Fcap. 
8vo. 5J-, 

" It is clearly the product oj no idle hour, but a highly-co7iceived and 
faithfully-executed task, self-imposed, and prompted by that inzvard yearn- 
ing to utter great thoughts, and a 'wealth of passionate feeling which is 
poetic genius. No man can read this poem 'ivithout being struck by the 
fitness and finish of the tvorkmatiship, so to speak, as well as by the chas- 
ttiied and unpretending loftiness of thought which i>ervades the -cvhole." — 
Globe, 

WORDS FROM THE POETS. Selected by the Editor of " Rays of 
Sunhght." With a Vignette and Frontispiece. i8mo. limp., is. 

Wyatt (Sir M. Digby).— fine art : a Sketch of its 
History, Theory, Practice, and application to Industry, A Course 
of Lectures delivered before the University of Cambridge. By 
Sir M. Digby Wyatt, M. A. Slade Professor of Fine Art. 
Svo. I Of. 6d. 



THE GLOBE LIBRARY. 



Beaittifidly printed on toned paper and hound in cloth elegant, price 
4i'. Q)d. each. In plain cloth, 3^', dd. Also kept in various styles of 
Morocco and Calf bindings. 



THE SATURDAY REVIEW says—" The Globe Editions 
are admirable for their scholarly editing, their typographical 
excellence, their compendious form, and their cheapness." 

Under the title GLOBE EDITIONS, the Publishers are 
issuing a uniform Series of Standard English Authors, 
carefully edited, clearly and elegantly printed on toned 
paper, strongly bound, and at a small cost. The names of 
the Editors whom they have been fortunate enough to 
secure constitute an indisputable guarantee as to the 
character of the Series. The greatest care has been taken 
to ensure accuracy of text ; adequate notes, elucidating 
historical, literary, and philological points, have been sup- 
plied ; and, to the older Authors, glossaries are appended. 
The series is especially adapted to Students of our national 
Literature ; while the small price places good editions of 
certain books, hitherto popularly inaccessible, within the 
reach of all. The Saturday Revietv says : " The Globe 
Editions of our English Poets are admirable for their 
scholarly editing, their typographical excellence, their com- 
pendious form, and their cheapness." 



GLOBE EDITIONS. 41 

Shakespeare. — the COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM 
SHAKESPEARE. Edited by W. G. Clark and W. Aldis 
Wright. 

"^ viarvel of beauty, cheapness, atid compactness. The whole works- — 
flays, poems, and sonnets — are coiitained in one small volume : yet the 
page is perfectly clear and readable. . . . For the busy mafi, above all 
for the working student, the Globe Edition is the best of all existing 
Shakespeare books." — Athen^.UM. 

Morte D'Arthur. — sir thomas malory'S BOOK OF 

KING ARTHUR AND OF HIS NOBLE KNIGHTS OF 
THE ROUND TABLE. The Edition of Caxton, revised for 
Modern Use. With an Introduction by SiR Edward Strachey, 
Bart. 

" It is with the most perfect confidence that we recommend this edition of 
the old romance to every class op readers." — Pall Mall Gazette. 

Scott. — THE POETICAL WORKS OF SIR WALTER 
SCOTT. With Biographical Essay by F. T. Palgrave. 
New Edition. 

"As a popular edition it leaves nothing to be desired. The want oj 
such an one has long been felt, co7nbining real excellence with cheapness^ 
— Spectator. 

Burns. — the poetical works and letters OF 

ROBERT BURNS. Edited, with Life, by Alexander Smith. 
New Edition. 

' ' The woi-ks of the bard have nroer been ofiered ift such a complete form 
in a single volume." — Glasgow Daily Herald. 
•' Admirable in all respects." — Spectator. 

Robinson Crusoe.— the adventures of robinson 

CRUSOE. By Defoe. Edited, from the Original Edition, by 
J. W. Clark, M.A., Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. 
With Introduction by Henry Kingsley. 

" The Globe Edition of Robinson Crusoe is a book to have and to keep. 
It is printed after the original editions, -with the quaint old spelling, and 



42 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 

is published in admirable style as regards type, paper, and binding. A 
well-written and genial biographical introduction, by Mr. Hetiry Kingsley, 
is likeivise afi attractive feature of this edition.^' — Morning Star. 

Goldsmith.— GOLDSMITH'S MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. 
With Biographical Essay by Professor Masson. 

This edition ijicliides the whole of Goldstnith^ s Miscellaneous Works — 
the Vicar of Wakefield, Plays, Poems, c^c. Of the memoir the Scotsman 
newspaper writes : ' ' Stech an admirable compendium of the facts of 
Goldsmith! s life, and so careful and minute a delineation of the mixed 
traits of his peculiar character, as to be a very model of a literar} 
hiograpJiy. " 

Pope.— THE POETICAL WORKS OF ALEXANDER POPE. 
Edited, with Memoir and Notes, by Professor Ward. 

" The book is handsome and handy. . . . The notes are many, and 
the matter of them is rich in interest." — AthenvEUM. 

Spenser. — the complete WORKS OF EDMUND 
SPENSER. Edited from the Original Editions and Manuscripts, 
by R. Morris, Member of the Council of the Philological .Society. 
With a Memoir by J. W. Hales, M.A., late Fellow of Christ's 
College, Cambridge, Member of the Council of the Philological 
Society. 

" A complete and clearly printed edition of the whole works of Spenser, 
carefully collated with the originals, with copious glossary, worthy — and 
higher praise it needs not — oj the beautiful Globe Series. The work is 
edited with all the care so noble a poet deserz'es." — Daily News. 

Dryden.— the POETICAL WORKS OF JOHN DRYDEN. 
Edited, with a Revised Text, Memoir, and Notes, by W. D. 
Christie. 

" The work of the Editor has been done with much fulness, care, and 
kncnvledge ; a well-written and exhaustive memoir is prefixed, and the notes 
and text together have been so well treated as to make the volmne a fitting 
companion for those which have preceded it — which is saying not a 
little!'' — Daily Telegraph. 



GLOBE EDITIONS. 43 



Cowper. — THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COW- 
PER. Edited, with Biographical Introduction and Notes, by W. 
Ben HAM. 

" M?: Ben/ia!n''s edition 0/ Ccwper is one of permanoit value. The 
biographical introduction is excellent, full of informatiott, singularly 
neat and readable, and modest — too modest, indeed — in its comments. 
The notes seem concise and accurate, aiid the editor has beett able to 
discover and introduce some hitherto imprinted matter." — SATURDAY 
Review. 

Virgil. — THE WORKS OF VIRGIL RENDERED INTO 
ENGLISH PROSE, with Introductions, Running Analysis, and 
an Index, by James Lonsdale, M.A., and Samuel Lee, M.A. 
Globe 8vo. 

The preface of this nnv volume informs ns that ^^ the original has been 
faithfully rendered, and paraphrase altogether avoided. At the same time, 
the translators have endeavoured to adapt the book to the use of the English 
reader. Some atnount of rhythm in the structure of the sentence has been 
generally maintained ; and, when in the Latin the sound of the words is 
an echo to the sense {as so frequently happeiis in Virgil), an attempt has 
been made to produce the same result in English. " 

The general introduction gives us whatever is known of the poe( s life, 
ati estimate of his genius, an account of the principal editions and trans- 
lations of his works, and a brief view of the influence he has had on 
modern poets ; special introductoiy essays are prefixed to the Eclogues, 
Georgics, and ylineid. The text is divided into sections, each of which is 
headed by a concise analysis of the subject ; the index contains rtferences to 
all the characters and ez'ents of any importance. 

*,* Other Standard Works are in the Press. 

*»* The Volumes of this Series may be had in a variety of morocco 
and calf bindings at very moderate prices. 



MACMILLAN'S 

GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 

Uniformly printed in i8mo., with Vignette Titles by Sir 
Noel Paton, T. Woolner, W, Holman Hunt, J. E.' 
MiLLAis, Arthur Hughes, &c. Engraved on Steel by 
Jeens. Bound in extra cloth, 45. 6^. each volume. Also 
kept in morocco and calf bindings. 

" Messrs. Macmillan have, in their Golden Treasury Series especially, 
provided editions of siaiidard -works, volumes of selected poetry, and 
original compositiojis, which entitle this series to be called classical. 
Nothing can be better than the literary execution, nothing more elegant 
than the material workmanship." — British Quarterly Review. 



THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF THE BEST SONGS AND 
LYRICAL POEMS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 
Selected and arranged, with Notes, by Francis Turner 
Palgrave. 

" This delightful Utile volume, the Golden Treasury, which contains 
maiiy of the best original lyrical pieces attd songs in our language, gjviiped 
with care and skill, so as to ilhtstrate each other like the pictures in a 
well-arranged gallery.'" — Quarterly Review. 

THE CHILDREN'S GARLAND FROM THE BEST POETS 
Selected and arranged by Coventry Patmore. 

" // incbides specimens of all the great masters in the art oj poetry, 
selected with the matuj-ed judgment of a man concentrated on obtaining 
insight into the feelings and tastes of childhood, and desirous to awaken its 
finest impulses, to cultivate its keenest sensibilities." — Morning Post. 



GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 45 



THE BOOK OF PRAISE, From the Best English Hymn Wiiters. 
Selected and arranged by Sir Roundell Palmer. A A^eiu and 
Enlarged Edition. 

" All prroiotis compilations of this kind must undeniably for the present 
give place to the Book of Praise. . . . The selection has been made 
throughout with sound judgment and critical taste. The pains involved 
in this compilation must have been immense, embi-acing, as it does, every 
■writer of note in this special proz'ince of English literature, and ranging 
(Tver the most widely divergent tracks of religious thought.'''' — Saturday 
Review. 

THE FAIRY BOOK ; the Best Popular Fairy Stories. Selected and 
rendered anew by the Author of "John Halifax, Gentleman." 

^' A delightful selection, in a delightful external form ; fill of the 
physical splendour and vast opuleJice of proper fairy tales.^' — SPECTATOR. 



THE BALLAD BOOK. A Selection of the Choicest British Ballads. 
Edited by William Allingham. 

' ' His taste as a Judge of old poetry zvill be found, by all acquaijtted ivith 
the various readings of old English ballads, true enough to justify his 
undertaking so critical a task.'''' — Saturd.w Review. 

THE JEST BOOK. The Choicest Anecdotes and Sayings. Selected 
and arranged by Mark Lemon. 

" The fullest and best jest book that has yet appeared.''^ — Saturday 
Review. 

BACON'S ESSAYS AND COLOURS OF GOOD AND EVIL. 
With Notes and Glossarial Inde.x. By W. Aldis Wright, M.A. 

" The beautiful little edition 0/ Bacon'' s Essays, now before us, does 
credit to the taste and scholarship of Mr. Aldis Wright. . . . It puts the 
reculer in possession of all the essential literary facts and ch7-onology 
necessary for reading the Essays in connexion with BacoiCs life and 
times." — Spectator. 

*' By far the most complete as 'well as the most elegant edition we 
Possess." — Westminster Review. 



46 GENERAL CATALOGUE. 

THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS from this World to that which is to 
come. By John Bunyan. 
"/? beautiful and scholarly reprint.^'' — Spectator. 

THE SUNDAY BOOK OF POETRY FOR THE YOUNG. 
Selected and arranged by C. F. Alexander. 
' ' A zcell-selccied volume of Sacred Poetry. " — Spectator. 

A BOOK OF GOLDEN DEEDS of all Times and all Countries. 

Gathered and narrated anew. By the Author of "The Heir of 

Redclyffe." 

"... Totheyoung, for ivJiotii it is especially intended, as a most interesting 

collection of thrilling tales ivell told ; and to their elders, as a useful hajtd- 

book of reference, and a pleasant one to take up -when their -wish is to while 

away a weaty half hour. We have seen no prettier gift-book for a long 

time.'' — Athen.-eum. 

THE POETICAL \VORKS OF ROBERT BURNS. Edited, u4th 
Biographical Memoir, Notes and Glossary, by Alexander 
Smith. Two Vols. 
'^Beyond all question this is the most beautiful edition of Burns 

yet out." — Edinburgh Daily Review. 

THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. Edited from 
the Original Edition by J. W. CLARK, M.A., Fellow of Trinity 
College, Cambridge. 
" Mutilated and inodified editions of this English classic are so muck 

the rule, that a cheap and pretty copy of it, rigidly exact to the original, 

will be a prize to many book-buyers" — Examiner. 

THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO. Translated into English, with 
Notes by J. LI. Davies, M.A. and D. J. Vaughan, M.A. 
" /4 dainty and cheap little edition." — EXAMINER. 

THE SONG BOOK. Words and Tunes from the best Poets and 
Musicians. Selected and arranged by John Hullah, Professor 
of Vocal Music in King's College, London. 
*^ A choice collection of the sterling songs of England, Scotland, and 

Ireland, with the music of each prefixed to the -words. How tnuch true 

wholesame pleasure such a book can dtffitse, and will disuse, we trust, 

through many thousand families." — Examiner. 



GOLDEN TREASURY SERIES. 47 

LA LYRE FRANCAISE. Selected and arranged, with Notes, by 
GusTAVE Masson, French Master in Harrow School. 
A selection of the best French songs and lyrical pieces. 

TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS. By an Old Boy. 

^' A perfect gem of a book. The best and most healthy book about boys 
for hoys that ever was luritten." — ILLUSTRATED Times. 

A BOOK OF WORTHIES. Gathered from the Old Histories and 
written anew by the Author of "The Heir of Redclyffe." 
With Vignette. 
^' An admirable addition to an admirable series^' — Westminster 
Review. 

A BOOK OF GOLDEN THOUGHTS. By Henry Attwell, 
Knight of the Order of the Oak Crown. 
"Mr. Attwell has produced a book of rare value .... Happily it is 
small enough to be carried about in the pocket, and of such a companion 
it would be difficult to weary. " — Pall Mall Gazette. 



\ 



LONDON : 

R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, 

BREAD STREET HILL. 



iv£ 



